Within the State of California, employment may be terminated at the will of either party. There are certain key activities to perform and forms to fill out before, during and after a termination of an employee takes place.Under California Labor Code section 201, when an employee is discharged (or fired), the employee's earned and unpaid wages become due and payable immediately. You can negate the at-will employment relationship and create a promise to terminate only for "just cause" through a written or oral contract. When an employee is terminated, the employer must pay all wages owed at the time of termination. The first step in the wage complaint process is to fill out a Form 1 labor board complaint. You will typically need to also fill out a Form 55 attachment. You must file reports for violations of minimum wage, overtime, illegal deductions from pay, or unpaid reimbursements within three years. Under California employment law, there usually isn't a difference between having your employment terminated vs. This means that all employers have the right to terminate employees at will, for almost any reason, or for no reason at all.