Best Ohio Wrongful Termination Attorney Answer: Can my job discriminate by making it harder on me because I’m Black/Arab/over 40 years old? What should I do if I’ve been fired but White employees have done the same thing without being fired? Was I wrongfully terminated? How do I find the top Ohio employment attorneys?
Employers should not be surprised about what employment discrimination covers. The laws are pretty clear. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Ohio’s R.C. § 4112.99 prohibit race, religion, gender, and national origin discrimination. Likewise, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) and Ohio’s R.C. § 4112.02(N), R.C. § 4112.05, and R.C. § 4112.14 make age discrimination unlawful. These laws make it unlawful to make employment decisions to hire, fire, promote, assign jobs or award benefits to an employee based on these protected class characteristics. Most of the employment discrimination and wrongful termination problems happen, not out of ignorance, but of arrogance. Many employers simply believe that they will not get caught, that no employee would dare sue them, or that they have found a way to beat the system.
How do employers try and beat the system? One of the big techniques by employers is to argue that the employee was fired for not meeting objective criteria or performance objectives, and that this is proves that there was no discrimination. Such an argument may be a problem for an employee’s wrongful termination claim if the employer had standard criteria or performance objectives/goals that the boss consistently and evenly applied. However, what our employment discrimination attorneys regularly find is that that these job requirements are set up to create a situation where many employees fall below the designated level of performance but only the targeted protected class are reprimanded or fired. Or, if the employer gets really slick, everyone that falls below the requirements gets reprimanded but the protected class employees get a hirer level or reprimand than the non-protected class – the black or older employees get a written warning or performance improvement plan but those employees outside of the protected class only get a verbal warning. As another example, the truly evil employers make the standards but then feed the women or the Jews less leads or fewer opportunities so that they have a more difficult time meeting these standards.
While it may be harder to prove that the employers stated reason for termination is pretext (a lie), once proven, the employer is at greater risk for punitive damages and exposures to pay legal fees.
Let’s look at an example of such unlawful discrimination. According to a gender and age discrimination lawsuit filed by mangers Elizabeth Morantes and Yolanda Fernandez, BOK Financial Corporation, doing business as the Bank of Albuquerque, wrongfully fired them based on their gender and age. Pursuant to the discrimination claim, BOK disciplined another employee, Betty Brewer, based on her sex and age. BOK argued that it terminated and disciplined three female employees because they fell short on objective criteria. However, discovery showed that the alleged objective criteria were not applied by the employer to younger male similarly situated employees.
Faced with the prospect of trying to explain this tactical scheme to terminate older female employees to a jury, BOK wisely decided to settle the age and gender discrimination lawsuit, and agreed to pay the women $230,000 along with other non-monetary consideration.
The moral of the story is that simply because you were fired for not meeting alleged objective criteria does not mean that you do not have a claim for wrongful termination based on race, religion, gender, and national origin discrimination.
If you are searching “I need a lawyer because I have been wrongfully fired or terminated;” or “I have been discriminated against based on my …” race, national origin, gender, age, religion or disability; or even think that you might need an employment lawyer, then it would be best to call the right attorney to schedule a free and confidential consultation at 866-797-6040. Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm and its attorneys are experienced and dedicated to protecting employees’ rights and solving employment disputes.
Disclaimer:
The materials available at the top of this page and at this employment law website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. If you are still asking, “How do I …”, “What should I do …,” “My boss discriminated against me because …” or “I was fired for …”, it would be best for to contact an Ohio attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular employment law issue or problem. Use and access to this employment law website or any of the links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship. The legal opinions expressed at or through this site are the opinions of the individual lawyer and may not reflect the opinions of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, Brian Spitz, or any individual attorney.