Oregon Wrongful Termination

Oregon wrongful termination lawsuits allege employees were fired from their positions in violation of Oregon labor law or federal labor law. Although Oregon is an at-will state, there are exceptions to the at-will doctrine, meaning employees who were wrongfully terminated from their jobs could file a wrongful termination lawsuit in Oregon.

Oregon is an at-will state, which generally means that an employer can fire an employer for any reason—or no reason—at all. In this situation, it does not matter if the termination is unfair; the employer has the right to fire the employee (similarly, an employee has the right to quit a job for any reason or even for no reason).

That said, there are exceptions to Oregon at-will employment. The first exception is that an employee cannot be terminated for discriminatory reasons. This means that it is illegal for an employer to fire an employee for being in a protected class. In other words, an employer cannot terminate a working relationship because of the employee's age, race, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation or for any other reason that falls under discrimination.

Second, an employer cannot commit wrongful discharge, which occurs when the termination is carried out for a reason that is socially undesirable. Included in this are terminating the employee for exercising rights of public importance and terminating the employee for fulfilling societal duties. For example, under wrongful discharge, an employer cannot fire an employee for complaining about discrimination at a work place or for filing a workers' compensation claim, nor can an employer fire an employee for reporting for jury duty.

Third, if there exists a contract or agreement between the employer and employee and that agreement limits the situations in which the employer can fire the employee, then any employment termination must be carried out as set out in that agreement.

Even though Oregon is an at-will employment state, there are circumstances in which employees can file wrongful termination lawsuits. One complaint about wrongful termination resulted in an arbitrator awarding an employee more than $322,000 in damages, after the employee alleged he was fired for blowing the whistle on his boss for mismanaging public funds.

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Last updated on Mar-28-14