What are my rights regarding my unlawful termination?
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What are my rights regarding my unlawful termination?
I was terminated from my employment after 33 years of service. For 30 years, I had a glowing work record. However, then a new director was hired and she immediately began to target me and another supervisor. She took away job duties, failed to notify me of important issues involving my job, and accused me of things I was not guilty of. She hired her cousin and immediately began to give her more of my job duties. The past 2 years she gave me a low job performance in some areas. About 4 months ago she terminated me for poor job performance among other issues. Most of the things she accused me of were unfounded or could have pertained to others employed at the facility who received no discipline. She made it difficult for me to do my job because she was always watching me and accusing me of not doing my job. There was very little contact from her except for nasty emails. Coming to work was like walking on eggshells. I know I am at at will employee but what rights do I have? She has tarnished my name and put a black mark on my professional career and I was not even able to defend myself. I had meetings with Corporate Compliance 2 times regarding her attitude towards me but nothing was done. This has nothing to do with age, etc. She just targeted me from day one and made my life a living hell. She also fired the other supervisor. I cannot let her get away with making accusations against my job performance and firing me for unfounded and even false accusations. She created a disparent worker. How can I have no rights in this and the employer has all the rights? She created a hostile work environment and discriminated against me when others were also doing some of the things she fired me for and no discipline at all. What are my options?
Asked on September 22, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
Unless your treatment was due to some form of actionable discrimination (which you did not indicate), then it was legal. You have no claim for a hostile work enviornment. Therefore, your only cause of action here would be if your employer violated the terms of an employment contract or union agreement. Otherwise, you were an "at will" worker which means that you could have been fired for any reason or no reason at all, with or without notice.
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