Discrimination, harassment, and retaliation have no place in the workplace. Unfortunately, many employees encounter these harmful behaviors. Fortunately, state and federal laws provide protections for workers in these situations. If you’ve experienced mistreatment at work, it’s important to understand your rights. With experienced legal counsel, you don’t have to navigate these challenges alone.
Recognizing Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation
Workplace mistreatment can take many forms, and understanding the differences between discrimination, harassment, and retaliation is essential to identifying when your rights may have been violated. Each type of conduct is prohibited under various employment laws, but they often intersect in complex ways.
Discrimination
Discrimination occurs when an employee is treated unfairly because of a protected characteristic such as race, gender, age, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or pregnancy. This can affect hiring decisions, promotions, pay, job assignments, or termination. Even subtle or systemic biases can amount to unlawful discrimination.
Harassment
Harassment includes unwelcome conduct based on protected characteristics that creates a hostile work environment. It may involve slurs, jokes, threats, or unwanted sexual advances. A single incident can be serious enough to justify legal action if it’s severe, but more often, harassment involves repeated behavior over time.
Retaliation
Retaliation happens when an employer punishes an employee for engaging in a protected activity like reporting discrimination or cooperating with a government investigation. Retaliation can take the form of threats, demotion, exclusion, reassignment, reduced hours, or termination.
The Role of Legal Counsel
When facing workplace discrimination, having the support of an experienced employment lawyer can make all the difference. Our firm can help you understand whether the treatment you’ve experienced violates state or federal law before guiding you through the steps needed to protect your rights.
Our attorneys can also negotiate severance agreements, pursue reinstatement or back pay, and ensure that retaliatory actions are properly addressed. Perhaps most importantly, legal representation provides you with the insight and support of someone who can look at your case objectively and use their experience to ensure your rights are protected.