Utah is an at-will employment – state but there are many big exceptions
Many Utah employees think because they are at-will that if they are terminated there is nothing they can do if they are terminated. That is not true. There are many exceptions to the at-will rule where an employer cannot lawfully terminate a Utah employee.
Illegal Reasons an Employer Cannot Fire You in Utah
Can I be Fired for Reporting Harassment or Discrimination?
Under Utah law, an employer cannot fire a Utah employee for reporting harassment linked to discrimination. This means that if you report harassment to your supervisor, or a higher-up supervisor or to Human Resources related to discrimination and you are terminated for it, that is illegal.
However, discrimination is the key. Discrimination has to be based on a protected class that either state or federal law recognizes. This means harassment discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, disability, age, gender or sexual orientation. In Utah, there also cannot be harassment and discrimination based on pregnancy status. Sexual harassment and sexual orientation is included in gender discrimination.
You first must make a report of harassment based on a protected class. This can be a report for harassment you dealt with, or on behalf of someone else. If they terminate you for making the report, you may have a wrongful termination claim in Utah, despite being in an at-will state. A company can also not take other retaliatory actions against you, including reduction in your hours, a demotion, lower pay, not paying out a bonus or other benefits or anything else that would be considered interfering with the terms and conditions of your employment.
If you are subject to harassment, you generally must make the company aware of the harassment and give them time to resolve the harassment before you have a harassment claim. If they don’t properly resolve the harassment at that point you may have a harassment claim. In some circumstances, if it involves a higher authority and a serious action, it could be sufficient to show the company was already aware of the harassment given the authority of the person such as a CEO.
However, if none of the harassment falls under a category related to a protected class. If your business is just being a bully, then you may not have a claim. Unfortunately, the discrimination laws don’t focus on general bullying. However, if the bullying is so severe that it is outside the bounds of decency in the community, then you could have other civil claims such as intentional infliction of emotional distress, but those types of cases have a high burden of proof in Utah and have to be very egregious activity. Apparently, some decisionmakers believe some non-discriminatory bullying is within the bounds of decency in Utah.
Also, if your employer has less than 15 employees, the Utah and federal statutes of discrimination may not apply to your case.
How long do I have to file a wrongful termination discrimination or harassment claim?
If you think you have a claim, you must also file a claim within 300 days of the last known act, so if the last act was your termination, you must file within 300 days to preserve your claim. If you don’t, you may not be able to file a claim depending on your circumstance.
What Can I Recover if I was Wrongfully Terminated for Reporting Discrimination and Harassment?
If you are wrongfully terminated, you could recover lost wages and benefits, attorney fees as well as emotional distress damages under the federal statute if you can prove the situation caused you emotional distress. The company could also face additional penalties if you can prove the actions were intentional. The main claim is lost wages and benefits. You have to make a good-faith effort to find comparable employment.
If you don’t, your lost wages and benefits could stop when you stopped making that effort. If your new employment pays less, you can recover the difference between how much you were paid with your old job and how much you are paid now. If your new job pays more, your lost wages and benefits may stop at that point.
Can I be fired for taking medical leave or FMLA?
FMLA or Family Medical Leave Act Violations
FMLA or the federal family medical leave act requires employers to allow employees to take time off, which may be unpaid, for up to 12 weeks a year. The leave may be taken intermittently with days at a time or all at once. During this time, the company cannot require you to work.
This can be for personal medical issues or specific family reasons. If you come back to work and you are terminated for taking the leave or prior to taking the leave, you may have a claim for wrongful termination for exercising your FMLA right. You may also have a claim if they force you to work on your approved leave time. You may also have a claim if they don’t approve of your leave.
Even if you don’t officially request FMLA leave or they don’t mark it as FMLA leave but it is for personal medical or family reasons, it could still be considered FMLA leave.
However, FMLA does not apply in all circumstances. You must have worked for your employer for 12 months with at least 1,250 hours. It also only applies to companies that employ at least 50 people within 75 miles of the workplace.
If you are wrongfully terminated for taking FMLA leave, you can recover lost wages and benefits and potentially double that amount if you can prove the actions were intentional as well as attorney fees. However, you typically cannot recover emotional distress damages for these cases.
Violations companies may make for you taking medical leave
If you take medical leave and FMLA does not apply to your circumstance and you are terminated for it, there still could be a wrongful termination claim. If your company allows sick leave under your policies, then that could be considered a contract under your employment that they are allowed to honor even if you are at-will and terminating you for it could be considered a wrongful breach of that contract.
Also, if your medical leave is related a disability and the company is aware of the disability, then there could also be a wrongful termination claim based on disability. However, you must make the company aware of the disability to have such a claim.
Can I be fired in Utah for refusing to do something illegal or within my rights?
You could have a potential claim for doing something illegal. Utah makes it illegal to terminate an individual based on public policy. It could be in violation of public policy to terminate someone for refusing to do something illegal. This could include situations related to tax evasion or other unlawful monetary crimes.
Utah law also recognizes a person cannot be terminated for exercising their rights. For example, if someone acted in self-defense in a situation and was wrongfully terminated for acting in self-defense, that could be considered wrongful termination.
Furthermore, Utah has passed some very gun-friendly rights recently. If you are a public employee or private employee and are terminated for lawfully carrying a firearm in Utah, you may have a wrongful termination claim as well.
What is a whistleblower in Utah which I can’t be fired for?
You could also be considered a whistleblower if you report activity that you believe to be illegal. However, many times you first must make a report to the proper authorities. If it is illegal activity, you may need to contact law enforcement or the IRS if it involves tax issues before you can be protected.
If it involves an unsafe workplace, you may need to contact the federal agency OSHA or its state of Utah conter-part agency UOSH to be protected. Sometimes reporting to such a high authority internally such as the CEO may be sufficient but better protection is reporting to the agency that enforces regulations with concerns you have. If you are wrongfully terminated as a whistleblower or retaliated against, for reporting such activity, you may have a claim as well which rises above at-will.
What are the requirements for terminating a Utah Public Employee?
If you are a public employee, you also cannot be retaliated against or terminated under the Utah Public Protection of Employees Act if you report things such as gross mismanagement, unethical conduct or abuse of authority.
Also, generally, public employees have a liberty interest in their job. This means that public employees cannot be terminated without due process. Due process requires at the bare minimum, notice and the opportunity to be heard.
If you aren’t given a termination hearing before they decide to terminate and after and or they don’t follow proper due process which could be their own internal policies or their own internal policies don’t satisfy due process, you could have a claim either for wrongful termination or not following due process before terminating you.
It is always good for Utah public employees to talk to a Utah employment to review and ensure their rights to employment are protected.
Can I be fired illegally for employment terms?
Even if you are an at-will employee and none of the other exceptions apply to you, there still could be an exception based on the terms of your employment. In ordered to be at-will, it must mean that both sides can decide to terminate the relationship at any time.
If there are promises made to you, either in writing or verbally, that says your employment is for a year or a definite term of time, you may be considered to be above at-will. If they terminate you for no reason in that circumstance you could have a breach / wrongful termination claim.
Also, if the terms and conditions give steps prior to termination in an employee handbook, such as a verbal warning, then written warning and then termination, depending on how the language is worded, it could make it so the company could only terminate you for cause instead of at-will.
Can I be fired illegally if there is a mass layoff?
There are also laws that require certain employers to give prior 60 days notice of a mass layoff before doing so. If an entire department closes, that could trigger the federal WARN act which requires notice. If a certain amount of employees are terminated at a specific site, usually 50 and it reaches a percentage of all other employees that work there, that could require the company to give notice as well.
If you are terminated when there should have been 60 days notice and you weren’t given those 60 days, you could have a claim under the WARN act. That could be a wrongful termination even though you were an at-will attorney. The remedy is back pay for the time you should have been able to continue to work. So if they terminated you without notice, you could recover 60 days of additional pay plus attorney fees.
When to talk to a Utah Employment Lawyer
If any of the situations above sound familiar, it may be with worth it to reach out to an attorney to ensure your rights are protected and you understand you specific case and circumstance better. This may not cover all of the exceptions to wrongful termination in Utah and at-will employment. Contact our Utah employment law firm today for a consultation as to your case.