4 Reasons You Can't Fire An Employee
by Joan Bradley
If you are a hiring manager, there may also come a time when you need to let an employee go. This might be the worst part of your job, but unfortunately there are situations that call for it. However, you also need to be sure you are firing them for the right reasons. The following are not legal reasons you can fire your employees.
Retaliation or Revenge
You are not legally able to fire an employees imply for retaliation or revenge purposes. There may come a time when an employee brings up a legal lawsuit against you and you feel angry for that lawsuit since they didn't talk to you first. While this may want you to let them go, this isn't usually a good enough reason. For example, if an employee believes someone else was promoted over them due to discrimination reasons, and they tried to sue you for discrimination, you can't fire them for making the assumption and bring up a lawsuit against you.
Discrimination Purposes
Due to the Canadian Human Rights Act, you can't fire an employee over discrimination. This includes not being able to fire an employee because they have a serious medical condition or due to pregnancy and childbirth. Discrimination can be anything from race and gender, to religion, age, disability, and national origin. You may have an issue later on if you did not fire over a discrimination reason, but the employee believes you did. In this case, make sure you have documentation to back up the real reason they were let go.
Exercising Their Legal Rights
There are certain rights all employees have in Canada, such as taking time off for medical or family leave, serving the court system, voting, or taking military leave. If an employee needs to take time off for something that is their legal right, you can't fire them over it. You must have another valid reason to terminate their employment. This is why it is always a good idea to check with human resources before you fire an employee.
Being a Whistleblower
A whistleblower is an employee who reported seeing illegal, dishonest, or otherwise offensive acts at their company. If you had an employee that noticed something amiss at your company, and they reported it either publicly or to a government organization, they can't be fired over it. This is a violation of public policy. An employee has every right to report things they see in the workplace that are against the law or otherwise frowned upon in your industry.
Contact a lawyer that specializes in employment law (such as Flett Manning Moore) if you fired an employee and they are claiming unlawful termination.
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About Me
You walk into your favorite grocery store and right away, you slip and fall only to sprain your ankle. You can't perform your job because it requires standing on your feet all day, which means that you can't make any money to support your family while your ankle heals. There was no warning that the floors were wet after being cleaned in the store – so what do you do? It's probably a good idea to think about filing a personal injury lawsuit. Of course, anyone with experience with a personal injury case will tell you just how important it is to work with an attorney throughout the process. I'd like to share insight I've learned through three personal injury cases that I myself have had to go through in the past. I think the information on this website can help people like you, who need some personal injury guidance.