Employees who have worked for the same employer for 10, 20, or 30 years may find they are terminated for no apparent reason. There is always a reason but the reason may be legal or illegal. If you find yourself in such a position, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I have represented both private and public employees who were fired for no apparent reason and was successful for recovering money compensating for them for lost wages, projected lost future raises, and pain and suffering.
If you have not already been finally severed from the position and are still working until the designated end-date, you should contact this office immediately before the designated termination date. One thing to NOT DO, is to become so discouraged, that you resign before your designated end-date as that could hurt any potential discrimination claims as well as your ability to collect unemployment.
IF YOU ARE AN AT-WILL EMPLOYEE
If you are an at-will employee, you are working without a contract. Most employees are at-will employees. That means that the employer can fire you immediately without notice, provided you are not fired for an illegal reason. You likewise, may quit without notice, unless you have a duty-of-care that would be violated, e.g., such as you are employed as a caretaker for a disabled person and your walking off the job places the person at risk.
There are many legal reasons to fire an employee, such as a reduction in a business and/or business profits requires fewer workers; technological changes or a change in the business structure eliminates your position. Even then, if the employer only eliminates the older workers but retains the younger workers, you may have a claim for age discrimination. The employer may also fire you if you are not meeting the employer’s legitimate business expectations. Even then, age bias could be a contributing factor in the termination decision, e.g., the employer uses new metrics administration programs that he wants the employees to utilize for the job, but only offers the training and seminars to be able to competently do this, to the younger workers. Again, age bias in the selection of workers included for the training process, is illegal age discrimination.
An employer could allege he is eliminating your employment position due to a “restructuring”. This is a subterfuge if he then replaces you with a younger person who is assigned a different job title, but has the same responsibilities and/or is doing essentially the same tasks as was required of you.
EMPLOYERS HAVE BECOME QUITE SAVVY
Employers have become quite savvy in planning a pre-emptive strike against a worker for their own business’s protection in case the worker subsequently files a discrimination lawsuit. Employers will sometimes “pad” the older employee’s file to make it appear that they had a legal reason to terminate the long-term worker. A common ruse is a sudden downturn in the employee’s performance evaluations after years of positive evaluations. This sudden downturn is a red flag that the employer may be terminating you for an illegal reason, be it age, disability, pregnancy, etc.
Performance evaluations are usually given periodically or yearly on specified dates or based on the date that the employee commenced his or her employment. While all evaluations are different and depend on the specific employer, most are based on various subjective and objective criteria. This means that there will be some aspects of the evaluation that will be based on concrete measurements, such as the number of sales an employee has closed, as well as some aspects that are a matter of opinion, such as the employee’s demeanor.
If your performance evaluation has taken a nosedive after years of your receiving positive evaluations, it could be that the opinions within it are speculative, having no basis in reality, and are geared to be negative for the sole purpose of fabricating an excuse to fire you.
I have represented long-term workers int their 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's who were wrongly terminated after years of loyal employment and was successful in recovering money for them.
Let Me Fight for You.
Let me fight for you. If you think you may have been discriminated against, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation. I accept discrimination cases from all over New Jersey. I have represented both public and private employees who were pushed out of jobs because of their age, including those in their 60's, 70's, and 80's, and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. If you think you are being pushed out of your job because of your age, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation.
What You Can Do.
I am an aggressive and compassionate employment law attorney who is experienced in successfully representing persons who were discriminated against at work. I am successful in bringing employee lawsuits against governmental entities and private employers and recovering money for victims of age, race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and other discrimination.
If You Quit Your Job, You May Lose Right to Prevail in a Lawsuit.
In many instances of discrimination, if you quit your job, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit unless you first take certain legally required measures to preserve your job while you are still employed. If you are thinking of quitting, or think you will be fired, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options in the safest way for you.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.