Fighting wrongful termination is uphill battle

What happens if you think you have been fired for a bad reason?

If you are a private-sector employee not under contract in the United States, there are not many legal options to pursue unless you can prove a civil rights violation.

"Private-sector employees don't have rights (in the United States)," said Charles Craver, a professor specializing in employment law at George Washington University Law School. An employee can be fired for any reason.

For any legal reason, that is. Workers cannot be dismissed for being whistleblowers, and federal law prohibits employers from dismissing or discriminating against workers because of their gender, national origin, religion, race, color, age or disabilities, for example.

You can also sue an employer for violating an employment contract, and there are certain state-by-state definitions of wrongful termination.

But even a dismissal that would be illegal — because of one's gender, say — can be hard to prove.

"The courts have cut back on wrongful termination cases," said Steve Paskoff, president of human resource consultant Employment Learning Innovations and a former attorney with the government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"You want to have 'smoking gun' facts."

Even if you do happen to press ahead with — and win — a lawsuit over losing a job, you might be better off settling for back pay and other damages rather than asking to be reinstated in your position.

There can be so much ill will following a legal battle, Paskoff said, that it would be better for both parties if the former employee didn't return to the company.