Whistleblowers Allege Wrongful Termination

Indianapolis, INYou work hard at your job and you expect to be compensated fairly for your work and treated with the appropriate respect, right up until you are the victim of a wrongful termination. Wrongful termination law protects employees from losing their jobs unfairly. For example, a person cannot be fired because of age, race or gender. A person also cannot be fired in retaliation for whistleblowing on his or her employer—although that does not stop employers from committing wrongful employment termination.

The truth is that sometimes employers break the law, and not just in regard to how they treat their employees. Companies (and people) commit a wide range of ethical and legal wrongs, from mistreatment of seniors at nursing homes to improperly profiting off the real estate transactions.

The thing is that in many cases, these crimes would go unnoticed if it were not for the brave employees who step forward and shed light on what is happening. Of course, even though it is wrong to fire someone for whistleblowing (under a variety of laws), that does not stop employers from creating false justifications for letting a person go.

One wrongful termination lawsuit, filed in June 2009, deals with whistleblowing at a nursing care facility. The plaintiff, who worked as a housekeeper at the nursing home for 3 months, said she was fired for reporting abuse and neglect of the nursing home's residents. That abuse and neglect allegedly included a man who was left to sit in his waste for so long, feces were caked on his leg. The plaintiff says she reported the situation to the head nurse and 2 nurse's aides but they simply left the man for the next shift of nurses to deal with.

The plaintiff says other instances of abuse and neglect allegedly included leaving an elderly woman who was paralyzed from the waste down in her own waste and leaving an elderly woman, unable to sit up on her own, by herself on a bench in the shower. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was fired when staff learned she was going to seek advice from her husband in how to deal with the situation. The lawsuit says the plaintiff's husband is a retired private investigator who is known for exposing elder abuse.

According to a report in Tulsa World, the plaintiff believes she was fired in retaliation for trying to expose the deplorable treatment of seniors at the nursing home.

Meanwhile, 3 former city employees, including a police chief in Desert Hot Springs settled their wrongful termination lawsuit with the city for $1.3 million. The 3 alleged they were retaliated against for complaining about the city manager allegedly profiting from negotiations with real estate developers, according to an article in The Desert Sun. One of the 3 plaintiffs was fired, while the other 2 said they were forced out of their jobs.

Of course, there are perfectly legitimate reasons for firing an employee. However, those must be related to on-the-job duties or contractual obligations. There must be legitimate reasons to terminate a person's employment. A person cannot be fired because of his age, race or gender.

If you believe you are the victim of wrongful termination, there are laws designed to protect you. However, those laws may vary depending on the state you live in and the nature of your employment. An experienced attorney can help to determine if you are eligible to file a wrongful termination lawsuit.