Despite the fact that Pennsylvania is an at-will employment state, employers cannot fire people for potentially discriminatory reasons.
People successful with their wrongful termination claims have access to certain compensation. Proving wrongful termination means proving that a person got fired due to personal characteristics.
Protected classes
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discusses protections based on discrimination. First, there are numerous protected classes, which prevent employers from discriminating based on that class alone.
The classes include religion, race, sex, age for those over 40 years, national origin and whether or not someone has a disability.
When employers hide their intentions
Employers will usually attempt to hide the fact that they fired someone for discriminatory reasons. They will often do so by hiding their real reason for firing an employer under something that seems more innocuous, such as a worker breaking a dress code or something small or benign.
Thus, workers who attempt to seek compensation for wrongful termination often need to do some digging to uncover the true motive their employer may have held at the time.
An extension of health insurance and unemployment benefits are among the support that fired workers may have to lean on in the aftermath of their dismissal.
For those who succeed with their wrongful termination claim, they may also have access to things like benefits and wage backpay and compensation for any emotional distress faced during this ordeal. An employer may even have to pay a fine to discourage this discrimination from happening again.
Thus, it is a good potential avenue for workers who believe they faced discrimination to pursue.
