Workplace Rights & Protection
Understand your options. Document what happened. Build a clean timeline and connect to official government resources.
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Choose what happened and jump directly to that section.
At-will employment generally gives an employer and employee broad ability to end employment, but it does not erase applicable discrimination, retaliation, protected-leave, wage, whistleblower or other legal protections.
RIGHT-TO-WORK ≠ AT-WILL. They deal with different legal concepts.
Whether a particular termination is lawful depends on the facts and the law that applies to that worker and employer.
Accommodation Request
Build a concise written request centered on the workplace limitation and the change you are requesting.
Retaliation & Termination
Did discipline, scrutiny, a customer complaint, performance concerns or termination follow a request for accommodation, protected leave or another protected action?
Build a factual chronology instead of trying to guess the employer's motive.
📁 Preserve the Record
If an employment dispute may be developing, contemporaneous records can matter. Keep lawful copies of material you are entitled to retain.
Do not take confidential customer information, trade secrets, protected health information, passwords or other records you are not legally entitled to possess.
💰 Offered a Termination Package?
A severance payment can come with a release or other contractual obligations. Read the complete agreement and understand what you would give up before signing.
A checklist identifies issues to examine; it does not determine whether a particular agreement is valid or whether you should sign it.
💬 “They Said…”
Noncompete Threat Checker
“You signed a noncompete. If we catch you working for a competitor, we'll sue you.”
Signing a restrictive covenant does not by itself answer whether every restriction in it is enforceable. State law, the wording of the agreement, the worker's duties, compensation, timing and the type and scope of restriction can matter.
A noncompete, customer nonsolicitation clause, employee nonsolicitation clause, confidentiality agreement and trade-secret obligation are not necessarily the same thing. One provision may be treated differently from another.
⏱ Deadlines Depend on Your Jurisdiction
Do not assume an internal HR investigation, severance negotiation or unemployment proceeding automatically stops another filing deadline.
State and federal filing rules can be different. Service Tech Vault will show jurisdiction-specific reminders when available, but always verify the current deadline with the responsible government agency.
Federal and other state claims can have different rules and deadlines. Verify the deadline that applies to the specific claim.
🇺🇸 FMLA & Federal Resources
The U.S. Department of Labor provides optional FMLA certification forms, including WH-380-E for an employee's serious health condition and WH-380-F for a family member's serious health condition.
🇨🇦 Canada — Workplace Rights
Canada does not have one nationwide equivalent of the U.S. FMLA that governs every employee. The first question is which employment-law jurisdiction covers the workplace.
Federal labour standards generally apply only to federally regulated businesses and industries. Most other employees use the employment standards of their province or territory of work.
CHECK FEDERALLY REGULATED INDUSTRIESYour employment-standards, human-rights and legal-help resources will appear here.
♿ Disability & Accommodation
Human-rights protections and the duty to accommodate may come from federal, provincial or territorial human-rights law, depending on the workplace.
🩺 Federally Regulated Medical Leave
For federally regulated employees, the Canada Labour Code currently provides medical-leave protections that include qualifying unpaid medical leave and medical leave with pay.
Up to 27 weeks of protected unpaid medical leave for qualifying circumstances under the federal rules.
Eligible federally regulated employees can accrue up to 10 days per year, subject to the federal requirements.
⚖️ Canadian Legal Help
Legal aid in Canada is delivered through provincial and territorial legal-aid systems. Eligibility and the types of civil employment matters covered vary.
Do not assume an internal HR investigation, severance negotiation, union grievance or legal-aid application pauses a human-rights or employment-standards filing deadline.
Need Legal Help?
Don't assume you cannot get legal help because you cannot afford a private employment attorney. Free, pro bono, reduced-cost and government resources may be available.
Do not wait for legal-aid intake or an attorney callback before checking applicable filing deadlines with the responsible government agency.
🆓 Free / Pro Bono Help
📍 Help in Your State
Your Workplace Rights state selection is used below.
State legal-aid, bar referral and government enforcement resources will appear here.
Know What Kind of Help You're Opening
Usually subject to income, case-type, geographic or other eligibility requirements.
Volunteer attorney assistance. Availability and case acceptance vary.
Lower-cost legal assistance. This does not necessarily mean free.
Helps locate an attorney. Referral does not necessarily mean representation will be free.
An agency may investigate or enforce employment laws, but the agency is not automatically your private attorney.
Before You Contact Someone
Eligibility for free representation varies. A legal-aid organization may provide information, advice or referrals even when it cannot take the entire case.
Important
This tool organizes information and provides educational resources. It does not decide whether discrimination, retaliation or another legal violation occurred and is not a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney, union representative or government agency.
Legitimate discipline or termination can occur after protected activity when it is actually based on lawful, non-retaliatory reasons. The chronology and evidence are what matter.