Because California is an at-will employment state, the general rule is that employers can terminate an employee at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all, with or without notice. There are, however, certain protections that employees have by statute. For instance, terminating an employee because of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. is illegal. For more information about this, see the “Discrimination” tab under “Employment”.
Another situation where an employee has some protection from termination is where an employment contract exists. Some employees have explicit written contracts specifying that they can only be fired for cause. Even without such an explicit contract, however, an implied contract can exist where an employee handbook specifies grounds for termination.
