Are you an employer in the County of Riverside? Well then you should know that there are a number of Employment Laws that you are required to adhere to in order to avoid employment charges.

Failure to comply with both state and federal employment laws can put you in more trouble than you imagined. Laws have become more and more protective with the employees’ rights. So if you don’t want any problems, see to it that you are executing the legal policies and avoiding unlawful employment practices in your workplace.

One violation of the employment law that is considered a serious offense is wrongful termination. Wrongful termination or wrongful discharge is a term that generally refers to a person being fired when they shouldn’t have been.

Employment lawsuits can be a nuisance, and they can cause negative publicity for your business or company. So in order to elude being sued for wrongful termination practices, make sure that you are firing your employee for lawful grounds.

Here are some guidelines in terminating an employee without the danger of being sued:

• Clarify with your employee that they are under “at will” employment. Have them sign an agreement so that it will be clear that they can be fired whenever you choose to, but on lawful basis.
• Make sure that you have a legitimate reason for firing an employee. These legitimate reasons exclude discrimination based on their gender, sexual orientation, race, color, age, disability, pregnancy, and religion; retaliation; false accusations; and others.
• In case that your employee is under a contract or a collective bargaining agreement, see to it that you do not infringe the length of employment term that was included in the agreement, otherwise, you will be breaching the contract that leads to a lawsuit.
• The termination should not violate any legal protection provided for employees. Such protections include whistle-blower protections, contractual protections and other public policy exceptions. Promissory estoppels and the breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing are also not allowed.

So when is it safe to fire an employee? Here are some legitimate reasons that can be accepted:

• Consistent incompetence
• Repeated inexcusable absences and tardiness
• Defiance of company policy
• Drugs and alcohol
• Physical violence
• Forged information
• Illegal acts such as creating a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, discrimination, etc

If you are not certain whether terminating an employee would be right or wrong, or if you think that, the basis for termination can be subject to misunderstanding, you can ask for legal advice from a Riverside County Employment law attorney who specializes in dealing with this type of cases.

As employers and superiors, it is your right to terminate an employee whom you think is no longer qualified or deserving for the job. However, you also carry a certain responsibility to ensure that your employees get righteous treatment from you – unless you want a lawsuit waiting for you at your doorstep.

Both employers and employees have employment rights. Just see to it that you do not abuse your rights or your employee may also exercise his or her right in going after you with a lawsuit in hand.

Our Riverside County attorneys are competent enough in handling cases involving Employment Law violations . For proper information and legal representation, log on to our website and seek the aid of our legal experts.