Employee-Employer Disputes: Understanding Employment Termination, Discrimination, and Harassment

Learn about Handling Termination, Discrimination, and Harassment in Employment Law with Roy Oppenheim.

Summary: In this brief, Roy Oppenheim of Oppenheim Law discusses the intricacies of disputes between employers and employees, particularly focusing on termination, discrimination, and harassment. He emphasizes the importance of scrutinizing whether the termination was conducted fairly, legally, and in line with any existing employment agreements. Discrimination claims, another significant area, are thoroughly investigated by a team to determine the validity of the claim. Harassment, not necessarily limited to sexual harassment, is also recognized as a serious issue, with oppressive workplace conditions potentially leading to ‘constructive termination’. Oppenheim Law represents both employers and employees in these complex matters, offering advice and representation in termination scenarios as part of their concierge flat fee program.

Full transcript:
Hi, Roy Oppenheim for Oppenheim Law. I want to talk a little bit about appointment matters that involve disputes between an employer and an employee, and we represent both employers and employees regularly. One of the big issues is termination. Was the termination done properly? Was it done fairly? Did it violate any laws? And so one of the things we look at is when someone is terminating you. Did they have an employment agreement? Was there a violation of the employment agreement? Were they an employee at will? Did the employer have the right to terminate the employee? Did they have a bad reason for terminating the employee? So these are the kinds of things that we would typically look at.

The other thing, of course, is one of the bad reasons that someone could be let go is for discrimination. And a lot of times we will have clients who will claim that they were discriminated against upon their termination. And so we investigate those things with a team of investigators and make an assessment of whether or not there is a claim there. And if we’re representing an employer, we’ll do the exact same thing. Typically we try and resolve these things quicker than later because it’s in no one’s interest to have these things drag on particularly long.

And then the final thing is harassment. Harassment is huge. You know, is someone feeling harassed by their boss in any way? And it is not necessarily just sexual harassment, but any kind of harassment. Are they being abused in some way? And to the extent that they are, that’s really illegal today. The old days of people throwing books and yelling and screaming at their employees is really not considered socially acceptable today and is a form of harassment. And so if someone feels like they quit because of a bad boss, that there could be a constructive kind of termination where, in fact, the employee was unjustifiably quitting because of the harassment by the employer.

And so those are the kinds of things we look at, but again, whether we’re representing the employer or the employee we’ve been doing this for many years. So if you have any questions about the termination or about terminating an employee, we would be glad to do that. If you’re a business, a lot of the termination issues we deal with in the concierge flat fee program of the law firm. Navigating Employee-Employer Disputes: Understanding Termination, Discrimination, and Harassment