What is workplace discrimination? While many workers have laws in place to protect them against certain types of workplace discrimination, it can be tricky to understand if you have a case or not, not to mention prove it.
Regrettably, workplace discrimination continues to be a prevalent issue in the US. In 2024 alone, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission processed over 88,000 new discrimination charges, marking a 9.2% increase from the previous year, as reported by Filippatos Law Blog.
What Are Workers’ Rights Under Federal Law?
There are multiple federal laws in place to protect employees from discrimination in many areas, including.
- Race
- Colour
- Religion
- Sex, including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation
- National origin
- Disability
- Genetic information
- Retaliation
What To Do If You Think You’re Experiencing Workplace Discrimination?
It’s really important that you understand the best practices for making a claim of workplace discrimination.
One of the most important steps in dealing with workplace discrimination is meticulous documentation. Keep detailed notes of dates, times, witnesses, emails, and other communications. This proactive approach will help strengthen your case.
In the first instance, you need to report the issue using your company grievance procedure or relevant HR procedures. Retaliation is often illegal, so it’s important to have everything tracked internally to help your case.
Once you’ve had enough, you can file a charge with the EEOC or your state’s fair employment agency to get legal proceedings started. But you need to do this promptly, as you only have a maximum of 300 days to make a legitimate claim.
Legal Help
Once you have followed the above point, it’s important that you talk to expert lawyers like Folkman Law who are experienced in helping people navigate workplace discrimination cases. A skilled attorney will help you understand if your case meets legal requirements for workplace discrimination and where you stand. They will assist you with filing the relevant charges within appropriate timeframes and handle court proceeding settlements and anything else that comes your way, including retaliation from your workplace.
What Not To Do
So you’ve got all the right steps in place and you’re following the rules, now what? It’s really important that you don’t undermine your case or make things harder than they need to be, and certain actions can weaken your case, for example.
- Quitting without legal advice can affect your ability to claim damages or argue constructive dismissal.
- Posting about the case on social media, as these can and probably will be used against you, even if your profiles are set to private.
- Destroying or altering evidence is illegal and will harm your credibility and can even land you in legal trouble.
- Ignoring workplace policies will go against you and will undermine your case, so make sure you’re still following company guidelines for ongoing issues.
- Don’t retaliate. Any behavior that can be seen as retaliatory towards colleagues or management will harm your case.
It’s really important that your employers are held accountable for any discriminatory behavior they’re exhibiting. You need to make sure you’re not do anything that will impact the result of any case you engage in against them. Holding your employer accountable is not just about your case, but about creating a fair and just workplace for all employees.