In extreme cases, an employer’s actions when firing a worker are so devious and wrong that they rise to the level of fraud. Fraud is commonly found in the recruiting process (where promises are made and broken) or in the final stages of employment (such as when an employee is induced to resign).
To prove that your job loss came about through fraud, you must show all of the following:
- your employer made a false representation
- someone in charge knew of the false representation
- your employer intended to deceive you (or tried to induce you to rely on the representation)
- you actually did rely on the representation, and
- you were harmed in some way by your reliance on the representation.
The hardest part of proving fraud is showing that the employer acted badly on purpose, in an intentional effort to trick you. That requires good documentation of how, when, to whom, and by what means the false representations were made.
