My boss lied about the reason for firing me –is my termination illegal?

Q: SEVERAL weeks ago, I was diagnosed with a medical condition that required me to go to my doctor every week for treatment. I had informed my supervisor about my need to take 2-4 hours off work every week for a limited period of time. Last week, HR told me I had too many absences. Yesterday, I was fired for poor performance but I wasn’t shown my evaluation. Then later I was told that someone complained about me. When I asked HR about the firing, I was told I was laid off. I feel I’m being lied to. Is my firing legal?
A: Your firing may be illegal. Yes, the boss may be lying, but that does not in itself make the firing illegal. What makes your firing suspicious is that your boss may be motivated by a discriminatory reason (your medical condition) that is being covered up with a business reason instead.
The at-will doctrine of employment in California allows either the employee or the employer to terminate the employment relationship at any time. However, an employer may not terminate an employee for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons. Retaliatory or discriminatory motives may give rise to a wrongful termination claim.
In order to justify the termination, the employer may claim that it had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for firing the employee (such as poor performance or customer complaints). It is then up to the employee to prove that the employer’s stated reason for the firing was a “pretext.” To prove pretext, the employee may show that:
– the stated reason has no factual basis (i.e., the reason is false)
– the stated reason did not cause the firing
– the stated reason is not enough to cause a firing (i.e., people are not usually fired for this reason)
Consider a recent case reported by the Daily Journal:
Jose Rivera worked as a forklift operator for Costco Wholesale Corp. in Riverside County. Because he suffered from disabilities related to his shoulder, knee, and back, he needed to take several medical leave of absence for treatments. Costco knew about his medical condition.
After 12 years of working at Costco, he was terminated. Costco claimed that he was terminated because he had grabbed a female supervisor in a forceful, aggressive manner, and that his conduct constituted illegal sexual harassment.
The case went to trial before a jury. During trial, the employee showed that the “grabbing” incident was “exaggerated” by the supervisor, that Costco did not follow its corporate standard protocol and procedures for investigating the harassment complaint. As a native Spanish speaker, Mr. Rivera was only interviewed and investigated in English, and that as part of the investigation, Costco’s general manager noted in an email that “Jose has missed a lot of time.”  Thus, the employee claimed, the employer’s reason for his firing was pretext. The real reason is that the employer was motivated by disability discrimination.
The jury believed the employee and awarded him a total of $1,686,500 in damages, which included $1.18 million for his disability discrimination claim, and $500,000 for his defamation claim.

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The Law Offices of C. Joe Sayas, Jr. welcomes inquiries about this topic. All inquiries are confidential and at no-cost.  Atty. Sayas’ Law Office is located at 500 N. Brand Blvd. Suite 980, Glendale, CA 91203. You can contact the office at (818) 291-0088 or visit  www.joesayaslaw.com. 

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C. Joe Sayas, Jr., Esq. is trial attorney who has obtained several million dollar recoveries for his clients against employers and insurance companies. He has been selected as a Super Lawyer by the Los Angeles Magazine, featured in the cover of Los Angeles Daily Journal’s Verdicts and Settlements, and is a member of the Million Dollar-Advocates Forum.