Many situations can arise that would cause a worker to want to temporarily leave their job. They may have become injured, have a new child in the family, or want to leave to care for loved ones. While laws exist protecting worker rights to have leave time for these reasons, workers still may want to leave their jobs entirely for certain periods of time, and then change their minds. Recently, a California woman claimed that she resigned due to a temporary “altered mental state” that was caused by medicine she was taking because of a disability. The court ruled that rescinding a resignation that was willfully completed by an employee is not an illegal adverse employment action. The woman sued for disability discrimination and did not win.
What Is an Adverse Employment Action?
An adverse employment action occurs when an employer retaliates against a worker attempting, or suspected of attempting to make a discrimination claim against an employee. This can include demotion to a lesser position, firing, or threatening to fire if an employee does not drop the discrimination claim. Other situations like lateral job transfers, increased workload, promotion exclusion, placing employees on leave, and unfavorable references to new employers can be considered adverse employment actions.
If you voluntarily resign, your employer is not obligated to hire you back on. However, if you were pressured to leave, or your employer engaged in adverse employment actions after you brought up illegal practices within the company, the law protects you from employer retaliation.
Los Angeles labor attorneys at Kesluk, Silverstein, Jacob & Morrison, P.C. have experience fighting for workers’ rights in many complex employer retaliation cases. In some cases, an employer can be asked to give a job back in the event of a wrongful termination.