When it comes to terminations, it isn’t always mandatory that one is terminated based on lawful reasons, as fake reasons for termination can also play out in employment lawsuits. You might not have heard about pretextual termination before, which is essentially when an employer gives false or misleading reasons for terminating their employees.
Read on to learn more.
What Actually Is a Pretext?
Let us explore the actual meaning of pretext. The pretext is a reason that your employer might give justification for their action, but that is not the real reason. It is essentially a fake reason for why someone did something. In other words, pretext refers to a dishonest explanation which is essentially a lie and not an error.
The context of pretext in an employment law is incredibly important. Why, you might ask? Well, the reason is that if you are wrongfully terminated based on a pretext, your lawyer will have to prove in court that the reason given for your termination by the employer is not true. And most employers actually never tell the truth.
Real Reasons Why People Get Fired
There is a great chance that if an employer fired their employee because of their race, gender, religion, or because the employee blew their whistle or because of their age – the employer is never going to admit this in court. On that note, it is very rare for the lawyer to have direct evidence to prove in the court what is truly happening.
How Will A Lawyer Help
This aspect indicates why the lawyer has then to look at the facts surrounding the termination as well as the circumstances. They will also have to find evidence from what other people saw and what other people heard the employer say to prove that the employer had a bad motive in firing you – their employee.
What is A Burden-Shifting Test?
So, in a wrongful termination case, the lawyer is looking very closely at the explanation given for why an employee was fired. This aspect happens to play out within the law. The lawyer might conduct a burden-shifting test where, first, the plaintiff employee will have to put out an allegation and state that they were fired for some discriminatory reasons. The plaintiff has to allege that their employer fired them for wrongful reasons and things that are essentially against the law.
The Importance of Providing Legitimate Reasons for Termination
Subsequently, the burden shifts down to the defendant employer, who has to provide legitimate and non-discriminatory reasons for that termination. On that note, if you believe that you have been wrongfully terminated based on discrimination, your best bet is to contact a wrongful termination lawyer, such as the Wrongful Termination Colorado lawyer, if you live in Colorado. The lawyer can then help with collecting evidence and supporting your claim that your employer’s stated reason for your termination was indeed a pretext.
Your Employer Can Give a Thousand Reasons for Firing You
If you look at the termination from an employer’s perspective, you will find it easy to see that they can come up with thousands of reasons for firing an employee. Your employer will also have their team of HR professionals and their team of defense lawyers to prove in court that there was a legitimate reason to fire you.
However, what happens then is that the burden shifts again from your employer to you, as you will have to show now that all of their explanations are lies and a pretext. You can prove a pretext with the help of a wrongful termination lawyer, and you can circumstantially prove your case, and in turn, you can win at trial.
Common Wrongful Termination Cases
In a wrongful termination case, you are almost always dealing with wrongful termination, discrimination, or whistleblower. The common theme in these cases is that someone was fired. Also, generally, in such cases, the employer offers a legitimate and non-discriminatory reason for that termination. This aspect perfectly explains why it becomes the employee’s job and their lawyer’s job to show that the real reason for the termination is discrimination, wrongful termination, or whistleblower activities.
Protected Status
When it comes to discrimination, the law states that it is illegal for an employer to take adverse action against any of their employees because of the employee’s protected status. Speaking of protected status, it is usually linked with race, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, marital status, etc.
Wrongful Termination Example
Suppose you are a female who works in a fraternity-style employment, and there are a lot of women who work in male-dominated environments. Often, these environments happen to have crude language, sexist comments, and general intimidation towards females. Now, if you work in such an environment and you get annoyed with it, you naturally go to your boss and complain about it.
You tell your boss that you feel as if you are being picked on because of your gender. You also tell your boss that there is all sorts of sexist language used in the workplace and that it should stop because it makes you uncomfortable.
What happens next is that you get terminated because you made those complaints. Of course, your boss won’t come out and say that they fired you because you are a female, but they will say all sorts of other things, such as they fired you because you weren’t meeting your goals or because you weren’t a team player. If you look at it, you will see that these are legitimate and non-discriminatory reasons.
In this case, the burden shifts, and it becomes your job to show that you weren’t fired because of the fake reasons given by your boss, as there are many people who are insubordinate and that you were, in fact, fired because you complained against gender discrimination and gender harassment at your workplace. This is how a wrongful termination case plays out.
Final Thoughts
If you are wrongfully terminated, the best thing you can do is to get in touch with a lawyer who will help with collecting evidence against your employer. Also, make sure to maintain a record of the discrimination or illegal treatment. Write about it in your journal, as it can help you prove later in court what the real reason for your termination was.
