Legal Question in Employment Law in California
I was terminated from my job as the direct result of a consultant that was determined to "get me", as he threatened to do just two weeks prior to what turned out to be my last day. This person had made these types of comments throughout the nearly four years i worked there. I emailed my management
just prior to this incedent, informing them of his remarks. He used profanity, and basically cussed me out for something that was completely accidental and had no mal-intent. This person felt threatened by me because i had several years experience on the computer system he was primarily responsible for. I knew of many things this person was doing that appeared unethical, although i never reported or exposed what he was doing, and never threatened to do so. In the end, to make a long story short, this guy created a problem on "his" system, that caused communications to fail between our main office "headquarters" and our two remote offices. He was so paranoid of me exposing things on this system, he had it locked down, with securities set at the highest level, restricting me or anyone else from accessing it. I was not able to do my job on several occasions due to the restrictions. I was hired by this company mainly to operate and administer this system along with other networking duties. I sent a formal complaint to my boss (president) shortly after being hired about this, and nothing got done. I was basically told to figure things out. (find shortcuts). They had to do whatever this guy said because he wrote all the applications for this system and he was the only person that could fix, edit, or write, programs for this system. It's an IBM AS400 which is open source, meaning the programs are custom written by programmers. Whoever writes the programs uses their own code and therefore they are the ones to call for error messages etc...He basically had the company by the (hair), and had what seemed like more power than anyone in management. I had no chance against this guy and the company couldn't do anything because he would threaten to quit. I was able to retrieve job logs exposing and proving that he was responsible for the problem that he accused me of.
Making good on his threat to "get me" just two weeks before this particular incident. My question is,
"do i have any rights against this individual or the company"? I have complete and detailed documentation chronologically written in regards to the incident proving that i did nothing wrong.
The company failed to protect me even after i had informed them of his threats towards me and behavior. Foul language, etc.....I'm not even able to collect un-employment and i have a family and kids to support. Can i sue this guy in civil court. Can i sue the company? I need advice..please help.
2 Answers from Attorneys
The company had the right to fire you because they didn't like the color of your shirt on Tuesday, if they wanted to, or for no reason at all. They most certainly were free to fire you for not getting along with a consultant who was essential to the company's existence. So you have no recourse to sue the company. If you can prove all this, about all you can do is apply for unemployment and dispute that you were fired for just cause. Being fired does not automatically disqualify you for unemployment; it is termination for cause, or voluntarily quitting that disqualifies you. As for suing the consultant, again, if you can prove he made false statements and accusations that got you fired, you may have a defamation case against him. However, if the company knew the truth, and believed you, but fired you anyway because they need this guy so badly, you will lose. Only if the false statements were believed and that caused your termination would you win. The bottom line is that when a company has two people who cannot work together, no matter how irrational one of the people is, they eventually have to let one go. And the one who stays is not the one who is right, or good, or innocent, but rather the one they need the most. Unfortunately that unfair reality is perfectly legal (although realistically it has to be legal, or both business and the courts would grind to a halt).
There are no laws against 'unfair treatment' or poor management. In general, unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can be disciplined or fired any time for any reason, with or without �cause�, explanation or notice, other than for illegal discrimination, harassment or retaliation under the ADA disability, Civil Rights [age, race, sex, ethnic, religion, pregnancy, etc], Whistle-blower, or similar statutes. The employee's goal should be to keep the employer happy and make the company money. That�s how they pay your wages.
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