How Employers Use “Cause” Termination to Deny Severance

Being fired is never a good experience, and it’s even tougher when you’re told it’s your fault. Layoffs are one thing, but it’s even worse if your employer says your firing was because you violated policy, failed to do your job, or otherwise brought it upon yourself. However, even if you did do something wrong, you still have legal rights, and your employer is responsible if they’ve violated them.

All of which is to say, if you’ve been fired for cause, you may think you don’t have options, but that’s not necessarily the case. An experienced wrongful termination attorney can help.

What is termination “for cause?”

Broadly speaking, firing an employee for cause means firing them because of something they did wrong, as opposed to, for instance, laying them off because their position is being eliminated. Examples of cause for termination include:

• Workplace violence or threats of violence
• Willful misconduct, such as stealing or destroying the employer’s property.
• Insubordination
• Serious safety violations and similar violations that would make continued employment untenable
• Repeated attendance issues, such as tardiness or no-shows
• Severe or repeated violations of employer policies
• Sustained poor job performance despite corrective efforts

To be clear, there is no single definition of what it means to fire someone for cause; it depends on the context. Only an employment law attorney can explain what legal significance—if any—your employer’s reason for firing you carries.

Why does it matter if you are terminated for cause?

In Ohio, as in almost every state, most employees are “at will.” That means you can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all; you just can’t be fired for an illegal reason such as your race, religion, or gender. As far as at-will employment is concerned, it doesn’t really matter whether you were fired for repeatedly stealing from your employer or for a single instance of talking back to your boss.

However, if you have a contract, then it may contain protections against firing without cause. In some cases, even your employee manual or other employment records may count as a contract that provides you with for-cause removal protection. Again, only an attorney can review those documents and explain what, if any, legal protections you have. If you do have some degree of contractual protection, then the reason your employer fired you can matter a great deal.

Furthermore, being fired for cause can affect your eligibility for unemployment benefits. Here, the specific reason matters—willful misconduct is usually a much bigger problem than simply poor job performance.

Finally, if you were fired for cause, it may be harder for you to get severance. Employers pay severance, in part, to avoid legal liability, and if they had a good reason to fire you, then they may be less worried about the possibility of a lawsuit against them. However, under some circumstances, they may be incorrect.

Even if your employer fired you “for cause,” you may still have a case

You may think you don’t have a viable wrongful termination claim if your employer fired you for cause, but that’s not always true. Even if your employer gave a reason for your firing, it may not have been the real reason. Sometimes, employers will exaggerate or even outright fabricate “good cause” for firing, because the real reason they want to fire someone is discriminatory or retaliatory.

If it turns out that your employer exaggerated or even lied about the reason for firing you, that can be powerful evidence that you were, in fact, fired for an illegal reason. Likewise, if the employer’s stated reason is something you actually did, but they haven’t fired other people who did the same thing in the past, you may have an argument that the real reason was something different—such as unlawful discrimination.

Talk to an experienced employment law attorney today

In short, even if your employer claims to have a good reason for firing you, if you think your rights have been violated, you should get legal advice.

Give us a call or contact us online for a free case evaluation with Gibson Law, LLC.

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