Do I have a wrongful dismissal suite against my former employer

I was fired for sexual harassment on Friday October 22, 2010. I was asked to come into work on my scheduled day off to help out at an office I had managed until the earlier that week. I had recently steped down from my position as Phlebotomy Supervisor over 30 satellite offices. All direct employee's to me were women. I went in to work as requested by the person now doing my job and worked with an employee who had worked for me for two and a half years. I worked with her for 3 hours and during this time had lots of conversation. We knew each other well and I spoke as I always would in her presents. Around 4:30pm after the other employee had gone home, I recieved a call from Human Resourses asking me questions about some of the conversations I had with this female. I answered him and told him yes we had said these things. He told me to remain there until he could get there because I was being terminated for sexual harassment. I was floored! Now they are fighting me on my unemployment benifits and I just had my appeal hearing today and find out that the HR person who fired me was fired the next week for sexual harassment as well. I did not make any rude or curde statements to this female and I am being put through this by a company I worked very hard for and would like to know if I have any recourse.

1 answer  |  asked Dec 14, 2010 2:56 PM [EST]  |  applies to Illinois

Answers (1)

John Otto
There's more to this story than you have told us. Did the female employee you had the conversations with complain? Why had you stepped down as supervisor? Who testified against you at the unemployment hearing? In your gut, what is the real reason you think you were fired? In general, in Illinois, unless you have an employment contract or are in a union, you can be fired at any time for any reason or no reason at all, unless you are fired for a specifically prohibited reason. Being falsely accused of sexual harassment wouldn't, by itself, be grounds for a wrongful dismissal suit. However, if you have evidence that the woman with whom you had the conversation was not offended and did not report you, and that the real reason for your termination was something like your race, sex, religion, age, disability, and some other things, you might have the basis for a wrongful dismissal suit. There are procedural steps that have to be taken and there are time limits to take them, so you should talk with an attorney in your area.

posted by John Otto  |  Dec 14, 2010 7:48 PM [EST]

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