California employees who work mostly as "at-will" workers may find themselves at risk of being terminated for any reason, even an unfair one, or for no reason at all. Typically, a worker who has been working for the company for less than five years, and has no written employment contract, is considered an "at will" employee under California law.

To be able to file a claim for wrongful termination, the termination must violate some fundamental public policy. In simple terms, this means that some state or federal statute, regulation, or constitutional provision must be implicated by the termination. For example, if the employer directs a worker to violate any law, ordinance, regulation or statute, the employer cannot legally fire that employee for refusing such a directive.

Additionally, a claim can also be pursued in situations such as if the employee complains about what he believes as a violation of law, such as late-payment of wages, failure to pay overtime, or workplace safety issues, and is fired in retaliation.

Another public policy violation that could give rise to a wrongful termination claim arises when the employer’s true reason for firing the employee is based, even in part, on that employee’s race, age, gender, religion, disability, or national origin.

Although such discrimination claims are covered under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), they also give rise to a common law claim for it in violation of public policy. Similarly, this also holds true for terminations made in retaliation for an employee’s opposition to, or complaints about, discrimination or harassment based on any of the protected classifications mentioned.

Take for instance, when an employee complains of sexual harassment, and then subjected to work-related criticism, disciplined, written up, or fired, he would have a claim for retaliation under FEHA as well as at common law.

Other terminations are unlawful because they are expressly prohibited in different statutes. Some of these include terminations of workers based on sexual orientation or those that take Family or Medical Leave.

Workers who take leave because they have a serious medical condition, or must care for a parent or child that has such a condition, are protected by the law provided the following situations are satisfied:

• they worked for the employer for more than one year • worked more than 1250 hours during the previous year • the company has more than fifty (50) employees that work within a seventy five (75) mile radius

Federal and state laws are enacted to protect employees against wrongful termination. Generally, these laws forbid termination or discrimination based on:

• age • race • gender • religion • nationality • disability • pregnancy

An employer is breaking the law if he or she takes into account those characteristics when considering:

• promotions • job assignments • wages

It is also unlawful to fire an employee under the following situations:

• for refusing to break a law • in retaliation for filing a discrimination or safety claim • for taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act without following its stated procedure or policy • for a reason that was not stated in the employment contract