If you are fired without just cause, what actions can you take to protect yourself? Legally and through HR?
Depends on what state you're in. Many states are at work states and you can be fired for almost any reason. They could fire you because they didn't like your haircut.
California
What states aren't at-will?
Get another job
Short of your employer standing on and pissing on your desk, Discrimination (Sex, age etc) is the only case.
So they can terminate without cause and you can’t do anything about it? That’s disappointing
It's the reality of the world we're in. It says it in your offer letter.
Folks are giving out recommendations without even asking OP why he/she was fired. So, why were you fired OP or is this a hypothetical question
Another problem is figuring out what to do about people who are being unjustly *hired*.
What does unjustly hired mean?
Perhaps @DDM2K means that they clearly had no qualification relevant to the job, others came in around the same price point with better qualifications, yet the person was hired and was not a good fit and/or was disruptive/unprofessional from day 1 as expected by everyone looking at the process. Yet the person was hired for some unknown reason. Am I warm?
If you believe you were discriminated because of your race / gender / nationality / sexual orientation etc, then don’t sign the severance paperwork. Contact a lawyer and you may have a case. But you should have strong evidence to prove. Otherwise you don’t stand a leg. Were you ever on Pip? Why do you think you were unjustly fired?
What is strong evidence? Written documentation? A lot of things are anecdotal and work environment related not really documented
If / when you were being discriminated did you document it. Did you ever contact HR and report. Can someone be a witness on your behalf. Is there a trail of discrimination in your team? Can you prove that trail. Were you fired even after strong performance etc. Things like these are very hard to prove. Your company will have much better lawyers than you. But if your evidence is strong enough, you can try.
Very rarely an employee gets anything out of this, trust me I saw stats
Can you elaborate?
I’ve seen statistics on lawsuits and their outcomes. It doesn’t look good for an employer. The settlements are laughable in most cases. It doesn’t mean you don’t have a winning case. I’m only saying it’s not easy to win That’s all I can say
If they offer, don't sign the severance packet on the spot. If they don't offer, they know you have no chance to sue for wrongful term.
Don't sign on the spot meaning negotiate? My wife was just told to sign one, but she's worried about signing away her rights.
Don't sign on the spot meaning that it is a legal document that they ask you to sign shortly after finding out you may not have a job, which can be traumatic. Take a severance package home and read it after you've been able to process. Then, yes, negotiate for more.