Employment Rights for termination of employment?

My employment was recently terminated after two years of what have been told is exemplary perfomance. This occurred without reasonable cause or forewarning. Furthermore, my employer announced to my coworkers that I resigned from my position which was not true. When speaking with the human resource manager about this, I was told that I would be paid for two weeks and that my benefits would end within two weeks. Do I have any legal rights for requesting some additional form of severence pay? I would appreciate any advise to help me determine my legal rights.

Unless you have a contract (union, etc.), an employer can fire you for whatever reason they like (unless, of course, if it's discrimination). You can be fired if your employer doesn't like the color of your shoes, or for no reason whatsoever.

Termination without cause...hmmm.

Was that FAIR and REASONABLE ???

If not, it violates business law. Report It

Probably not, unless you had an employment agreement. You're most likely an employee at will, which means either party, employer or employee can cancel the employment without cause or notice. You may have a case for slander though.

I would say that almost all employers today follow an "at will" or "fire at will" policy concerning termination whether voluntary or otherwise. Without union protection, there is little that can be done. However, you should be eligble for unemployment compensation from the state. This is usually a fairly large percentage of what you previously earned. Its unfortunate that employers are able to do such things to dedicated employees but we just dont support the unions like we should.You would still have your job if a union was active. As far as you bosses comments, you are only eligble for slander or def of character if you lost money or standing in the community due to what was said.

What state are you in? Depending on your state, you may not be able to do anything. Many states, including mine, have laws protecting employers. They can fire you with no notice and for no reason. They don't have to give you any severance pay. They can just come in one day and say, "We don't need you anymore, please leave the premises" As long as they don't give you an illegal reason (race, creed, color, religion, disability, etc.) they can do whatever they like.

If you are in a union controlled state, you may have better options. Contact your local labor board. But if you are down in the south like me, you may be quite out of luck.

If you want advice to determine your legal rights, contact an employment lawyer in your state. I don't mean that to sound flip; you're just not going to get the level of advice you're seeking from a bunch of strangers on a message board.

As far as what you describe, it sounds like that they did was within their rights as employers. Unless you had a specific contract for terms of employment including dismissal, and unless your state has specific rules for a position such as yours, they can let you go at any time without a need to show cause.

There are a couple of factors you need to be sure of when you contact an employment lawyer. First, are there other people in the company with the same job title that you had? If no then as an employee at will you will have a tough time proving that you deserve any recourse. If you were one at least 2+ people with the same job title and responsibilities then there are some grey areas in the terms of "employment at will" that work in your favor but you need to be willing to go through a lot of junk to get legal recourse. If you can prove that others in your position were not held to the same performance standards and expectations and that the company did not eliminate your position (they did not replace you with someone else at the same or greater rate of pay in the same position and job title with no change to job description) then you would have a case. At the very least if you are being given two weeks "severence" then you should be able to claim unemployment and begin collecting right away. Unfortunately, if you want to get additional severence the company has no legal right to offer you anything so the only way to do it would be to prove in a court of law that you were wrongly terminated and you can sue for lost wages. Good luck.