You may be familiar with federal and Florida laws that protect you from being dismissed because of your age, race, pregnancy, religious preference, sexual orientation, marital status, or disability. Even though Florida is an at-will state, and you can be let go for no reason, if you are given one, it better be lawful.
However, even if you are not given a reason, your employer’s behavior could still be wrongful. Suppose your employer makes your work environment so intolerable that you have no recourse but to quit. In that case, you are experiencing a facet of wrongful termination known as constructive termination, which many employers use to get around the rules. Our seasoned unlawful firing attorneys at Feldman Legal Group do not let employers get away with this tactic. If you are harassed or bullied into quitting your job, our Tampa constructive termination lawyer is ready to prove you were fired unlawfully and deserve compensation.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Approach
Our Tampa attorneys will study the circumstances surrounding an employee’s claim that they were constructively dismissed. We identify elements the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) uses in its regulatory probes, where we represent wronged employees whose civil rights were violated by workplace harassment or discrimination. The EEOC’s approach consists of:
- Determining that the employer’s discriminatory, retaliatory, or bullying behavior caused the employee to resign
- The intolerable conditions permeating the workplace are a direct result of the employer’s discriminatory, retaliatory, or bullying behavior
- A reasonable person in the employee’s position would find the employer’s behavior intolerable
- The employer purposely caused the intolerable conditions or knew about them
Note that it is not enough that the employer should have known about the unbearable conditions. Although employers should know what is happening in the workplace, some bad managers are clueless and may not care. If Mitchell Feldman determines a lawsuit is an appropriate vehicle for compensating the target of shameful employment practices, he will investigate to find proof that the defendant-employer knew about or caused the constructive termination.
When Does Bad Behavior Cross the Line?
The most difficult task a constructive termination lawyer in Tampa has is to ensure an employer’s behavior has sufficiently crossed the line into intolerable, causing the employee to resign. The court uses the reasonable person test. The law asks if an average reasonable person would be offended enough to quit a job in a situation like the employee’s. Thus, although it is rude and demoralizing, an employer who calls an employee stupid twice in one month would probably not be found responsible for constructive termination even if the employee quits, embarrassed and in a flood of tears.
An Example of Constructive Termination
An employee is devoutly religious, attends ceremonies twice a week, and wears clothing to work symbolic of their religion. The employer begins by making fun of the particular religion and calling the employee derogatory names associated with it. This escalates to encouraging other employees to make crude religious jokes in front of the employee. The employer schedules the employee to work every night the employee regularly attends a ceremony, and forbids the employee from wearing the religious clothing. For religious reasons, the employee abstains from eating certain foods, which the employer repeatedly brings to work and insists employees eat. The employee quits and consults a Tampa constructive termination attorney with Feldman Legal Group, who litigates and wins.
A Tampa Constructive Termination Attorney Fights for Justice
You may believe you could never win a lawsuit against your employer, who has decidedly more power at work than you do. So, you quit a job where you are being harassed or discriminated against. You are not even sure you can claim wrongful termination because you quit. But you can.
Mitchell Feldman is not intimidated by bullies. He will stand up for you before regulatory agency investigations and in a courtroom where your employer could be made to compensate you after you were provoked to quit your job. Our Tampa constructive termination lawyer is ready to fight for justice on your behalf. Call today.
