QUESTION
Do I have a case for wrongful termination from my last employer?
Asked on Dec 13th, 2017 on Breach of Contract - North Dakota
More details to this question:
I was fired from my job at a treatment facility for "breach of confidentiality. I filed for unemployment and they fought it. I had a hearing and it was determined that they did not show proof of any kind of breach on my part. I did not breach any kind of confidentiality that my employer had stated and feel I was wrongfully terminated from my job. This has caused a huge financial problem for me not to mention it has hindered me getting a new job because of a "breach". New employers do checks with old employers and the explanation for me being fired from my last job is not allowing me to find a new job.
1 ANSWER
Did you have a contract, either individually or through collective bargaining, which limited your employer's right to fire you? Sometimes such a contract can be established through an employee manual. If not, you could have been fired for any reason not prohibited by statute (e.g. race, religion, age, etc.), breach or not, for cause or not. Thus, unless you have such a contract, or you believe that the claimed "breach" was a pretext and you were really fired because of your race, religion, etc., you don't appear to have a claim for the firing You might have a defamation claim if your former employer lies in the references it gives you. but if the employer says you violated confidentiality, it will be your burden to show that that statement was false and that the employer knew it (as opposed to the unemployment heaering where it was the employer's burden), and that absent such a lie you would have gotten another job.
Answered on Dec 13th, 2017 at 1:56 PM