Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

Most people are familiar with the word "Discrimination" and they know what it means. However, many people do not know much about workplace discrimination, or in some cases, how it affects their job. This article will give some basic explanations of workplace discrimination and discuss how workplace harassment and discrimination affect employees.

What is Workplace Discrimination

At its essence, workplace discrimination is when an employer or its managers treat one or more employees unfavorably based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, disability, or other what is known as a protected status.

Unfavorable or negative or inappropriate treatment includes employment actions such as termination, discipline, failure to promote, demotion, reduction in pay, or refusal to provide other employment benefits offered to other employees. While those are common forms of negative employment actions, they certainly are not an all-inclusive list.

Every employee has the right to work in an environment free of discrimination. Discrimination is not only illegal and inappropriate, it also prevents employees from peak performance, and weighs down the company as a whole.

Types of Workplace Discrimination

There are a number of different types of workplace discrimination. Here is a list of some of the more common ones:

• Pregnancy Discrimination

• Sexual Harrasment/Discrimination

• Sexual orientation Discrimination

• Race Discrimination

• Gender Discrimination

• Age Discrimination

• Religious Discrimination

• Parental Status Discrimination

• Disability Discrimination

Pregnancy Discrimination

Pregnancy should never result in any adverse employment action. While this may seem common sense to most people, discrimination against pregnant employees still occurs with surprising frequency.

Even though it violates the law, employees continue to be laid off because they become pregnant, or otherwise are terminated because of and while on maternity leave.

Additionally, many pregnant applicants are never even given the chance at employment as they are passed over due to their pregnancy and not due to any lack of qualifications. These types of actions on the part of any employer can amount to what is known as workplace discrimination and harassment due to pregnancy.

Employers are precluded from discriminating against any employee or job applicant because of their pregnancy or their attempt to seek maternity or paternity leave. Further, employers are required by law to accommodate pregnant employees for things such as limitations in physical activities, seating requirements, or doctor appointments, and other medically necessary procedures. 

In short, pregnancy discrimination occurs when an employee or job applicant receives adverse employment treatment, such as being denied employment or promotion, equal pay, because of her pregnancy status, childbirth, or taking maternity leave.

Pregnancy in the workplace

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) are federal and California state laws that protect various types of employees, including pregnant ones, allowing them to seek accommodations and unpaid and job-protected leave.

If an employee that has just been an employee put to bed has worked for an employer for up to 12 months, the employee should be eligible for leave for up to 12 weeks if the employee has worked up to the expectation of earning that.

If a female employee is unable to perform her job as a result of pregnancy or medical conditions that relate to pregnancy and childbirth, the company/employer is entitled to give her the same treatment that will be given to a temporarily disabled person. This treatment may include simple tasks, disability leave (paid or unpaid), alternative assignments just as they would give a temporarily disabled worker.

Law against pregnancy discrimination

Pregnant employees are protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), this law is enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor. 

The law further avails nursing mothers the right to express milk in the workplace under the provision of Fair Labor Standards Acts (FLSA), enforced by the U.s. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. 

Wrongful Termination after Maternity Leave

This happens when an employee that has gone on maternity leave is fired or experiences demotion or is not allowed to continue working on their previous role after they resume from their maternity leave. 

If an employer fires one of his/her employees after returning from maternity leave, the employee has the right to file for wrongful termination.

Wrongful termination is when an employer uses the employee’s pregnancy status or return from FMLA leave as a reason to terminate such an employee's employment.

As an employee, you have the right to resume the same job you had after you resume your maternity leave.

What To do after Wrongful Termination

If you have wrongful termination, what you should do is seek legal counsel, If you live or work in Los Angele, you should contact a Los Angeles wrongful termination attorney. An attorney will guide you on how to go about the case. It is noteworthy here that the employee will be against giants of her workplace and as a result, getting a good attorney is key.

If you have faced workplace discrimination and or harassment, the first thing is to report such a case to Office management. Employees are always encouraged to report harassment to management at an early stage to prevent its escalation. Employees are also encouraged to inform the harasser directly that the conduct is unwelcome and must stop.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is any action, gesture, comment, speech, or contact of a sexual nature that can offend or humiliate an employee or applicant.

Sexual harassment can start by asking for sex in exchange for a favor or promotion, using insulting words towards the opposite sex, making sexual comments about an employees physical appearance or actions, sharing sexual oriented pictures, cartoons, or pornography to employees or co-workers, bullying based on gender, spreading sexual gossips about a colleague or employees, etc.

Statistics have proven that at least, 1 in 4 women experience sexual harassment at their workplace at one point or the other either from their colleague, employer, or superior.

What to do when Sexually harassed in the workplace

The first step to take is to talk to the harasser, making them understand that their behavior is unwelcoming. Usually, some people apologize and desist from such moves. However some men do not like to take "No" for an answer, and as a result, they proceed in such activities, and in some cases, they even intensify it.

If this happens, the next thing to do is to complain to the employer, it is right to bring such a case to their attention and their responsibility to end such harassment once it has been brought to their notice.

In the case where the harasser is not even an employee, as long as it happened under the company’s watch, your employer is responsible for protecting their staff from any form of harassment from outside and inside as well.

What if the case is not taken seriously or the person you are reporting to is the harasser? In this case, you move to the next step.

Make a formal complaint. California Fair Employment and Housing Act protect employees in this kind of situation.

Last but not least is to reach out to an attorney, getting a Los Angeles sexual harassment attorney

will help you assess the case and also counsel you on what steps to take to resolve the harassment issue.

Retaliatory termination

According to state law and federal law, it is illegal to retaliate (fire or discipline) against an employee who reports discrimination or harassment in a workplace, this is known as retaliatory termination.

If an employee is punished for lodging an official complaint as regards harassment or discrimination in a workplace, the employee that thereby files a retaliation claim with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

If you have complained about harassment in your workplace and suddenly the behavior of your employer or superior suddenly negatively changed toward you, you build a case of retaliation. 

But, if the employer’s attitude is formal and follows the companies policy, you can not just file a retaliation case if the policies do not favor you.

Other Types of Discrimination in the workplace

When an older employee is demoted or fired because of his/her age (and not because of the performance) and a younger person is hired to do the same job, this could be classed as Age discrimination.

Racial discrimination is when a promotion, job advertisement, transfers or reward is advertised but comes with terms and condition that hinders an applicant or employee of a particular race or origin to apply or take advantage of such opportunity.

Racial discrimination also borders around a situation whereby an employee is fired because they are married, dating, or friends with someone from a different race.

Gender Discrimination is when an employee or a job applicant is treated differently or unfavorably because of their gender or sexual orientation.

In some cases, workers who experience this discrimination may not be hired, promoted, or paid an equal amount that other gender are paid. 

The female gender is the one who experiences this discrimination the most, and as it is now, the discrimination is still happening around the world but is prevalent in U.S. and Europe.

There are situations where an employee can experience multiple discrimination at a time. For example, a pregnant black woman can experience Pregnancy discrimination, racial discrimination, and gender discrimination all at one in her place of work among all other things. This is why it is important to seek legal counsel when you experience it or see anyone going through such.

Conclusion

Any form of workplace discrimination is illegal and should be shunned, employers should ensure that their policies protect their employees from any form of discrimination from co-workers, clients, or customers. The best way to eradicate workplace discrimination is to report these cases and by taking a legal approach to resolving these discriminations, employees will be more comfortable working in an organization and be more productive in their tasks.