California Constructive Discharge Lawyers

Courts have ruled that creating a hostile work environment in an effort to force an employee to quit is illegal. The practice is often referred to as constructive discharge and can involve practices as subtle as discontinuing an older employee’s medical benefits and capping pay, or as obvious as outright hostility in the form of a demotion to an undesirable position. If you feel your California employer may be trying to retaliate against you or force you to quit because of your age and wage, you may have a legitimate claim for wrongful discharge.

Call Jay S. Rothman & Associates. We have been protecting the rights of workers in California for decades. We know what constructive discharge and retaliatory measures look like, and we know how to build a strong case in your favor.

Our lawyers provide legal advice and representation for clients in communities throughout California.

Employee Rights Attorneys Helping You Identify Constructive Discharge

Are you the target of constructive discharge? You may be if you can answer “yes” to any of these questions:

• Has your employer downgraded your compensation and benefits, but left your co-workers at the same level?
• Has your supervisor started a “paper trail” by recording and reporting slight tardiness and minor errors?
• Have you suddenly started to receive negative comments and reviews about your work?
• Have you been moved to a job position that is beneath the qualifications for which you were hired, without explanation?
• Are you suddenly being denied lunch and coffee breaks that other workers have retained?
• Has your employer reclassified you as exempt or non-exempt in an effort to reduce your earning capacity?
• Have you been warned about being fired for a minor issue?
• Are co-workers tracking your activity and reporting on your job performance?

If you feel your workplace rights may have been violated, call 855-239-0102 or contact us by email to arrange a free consultation with an experienced California constructive discharge attorney today.

Why Do Employers Try To Get You To Quit?

When California employers lay off or fire an employee without good cause, they face paying unemployment insurance premiums. Small-business owners, in particular, try to avoid these costs by hoping an employee will quit and forfeit the right to file for unemployment. But very few good workers commit errors that are serious enough to warrant getting fired for cause. Therefore, the only way to deny unemployment benefits is to get the worker to quit on his or her own. If you feel you were constructively discharged, or if you are facing harassment by your employer in an effort to force you to quit, call us.

Applying The Reasonable Person Standard

Every legal standard that you see in civil law comes back to the concept of “the reasonable person.” In constructive termination cases, the standard is “would a reasonable person find these conditions to be intolerable.”

The reasonable person is a theoretical concept that seeks to define what a person would do given a set of conditions, from subtle sexual harassment to generally challenging working conditions. Frequently, this test is applied to liability cases. However, the concept of what is and isn’t reasonable for a person to experience at work lends itself well to constructive termination.

Defining Intolerable Conditions

So if a reasonable person must find conditions intolerable, what then are intolerable conditions? These are conditions that make your day-to-day extremely difficult. It could be a working station in an uncomfortable place. It could be breaks given at strange and unpleasant intervals. Any of the small environmental and compensatory factors can combine to make a workplace intolerable. If you think your employer is trying to get you to quit, you have every right to fight back.

California Constructive Termination Attorneys

Get the legal help you need to protect your employee rights. Call 855-239-0102. You may also use our contact form to submit an email regarding your case. We offer a free consultation, and we advance all costs of investigating, preparing and litigating your case.