Examples of Employment Discrimination: Common Forms of Discrimination in the Workplace

The basic definition of employment discrimination is when an employee is treated unfavorably because of their race, their skin color, their disability, religion, age, gender, national origin, group affiliations, etc. Discrimination is illegal in any facet of employment. That means that the illegality of discrimination extends beyond simply hiring and firing practices.

Some common forms of discrimination in the workplace include:

• Indicating a preference amongst candidates in a job advertisement
• The exclusion of potential employees during recruitment
• Discrimination when deciding upon promotion and lay-off candidates
• Denial of the use of company facilities or the disruption of the use of common workplace facilities
• Discrimination when assigning leave (maternity, disability, retirement options, etc.)
• Denial of employee benefits due to discriminatory factors
• Payment of equally experienced and qualified employees in the same position, performing the same job duties, different salaries

Employers who make assumptions based on race, gender, age, etc. are breaking the law. It’s also illegal for an employer to make assumptions regarding an employee’s capabilities because of disabilities. In addition, employers are prohibited from withholding opportunities on the job because of the employee’s relationship with someone of a certain race, age, ethnicity, etc. Discrimination sometimes comes in the form of harassment based on personal traits that are protected by the law.

Employers are required to inform all employees of their rights under EEOC laws, but if you need more information or if you have questions regarding its application to your workplace, contact the California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik. 

What are the Protected Classes Under Discrimination Laws?

Many are familiar with the topic of discrimination and would assume they know exactly what the term refers to, but it’s not as easily defined as many think. An employer may dislike an employee. They might feel his or her personality is grating or disruptive to the team efforts and they may, as a result of their dislike, treat that employee differently. You might even say they treat that employee unfairly. Is that enough evidence for a discrimination claim? It may not be. In order to file a valid discrimination claim, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) needs to see that the discrimination falls within pre-determined categories or protected classes.

The way the courts determine protected groups under discrimination laws today was heavily influenced by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prevents discrimination in educational environments as well as public workplaces. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an individual cannot be discriminated against for: age, pregnancy, national origin, race, ethnic background, religion, or sexual orientation.

There are common forms of discrimination that fall under the umbrella of protection held by the EEOC that are easily recognizable:

1. 1.       Discrimination against workers due to their national origin, heritage or country of original citizenship.
2. 2.       Being required to speak English in the workplace (this may only be enforced if speaking English is a requirement to effectively perform job duties in the workplace).
3. 3.       Discrimination against an employee because of a foreign accent.
4. 4.       Hostile workplace environments created by “teasing” or offensive comments or actions aimed at employees due to their sexual orientation.
5. 5.       Employees that are fired due to their sexual orientation have also been victims of discrimination in form of wrongful termination.

If you feel that you need to further discuss any of these issues, please get in touch with Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik. We’d be happy to help you determine what action is necessary to right the situation. 

Gender Discrimination Laws

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any employee with respect to his or her compensation, terms of employment, work conditions, or privileges of employment, based on the employee’s gender. Importantly, sexual harassment in the form of a hostile work environment constitutes sex discrimination.

To prevail on a gender discrimination claim lawsuit, the employee must establish that there was a pattern of ongoing and persistent gender discrimination that was severe enough to alter the conditions of employment. To satisfy this requirement, the employee must prove that his or her workplace was both objectively and subjectively offensive to the extent that a reasonable person in the employee’s shoes would find it to be hostile or abusive. In addition, the employee is required to demonstrate that the gender discrimination took place because of the employees sex.

In employment discrimination lawsuits, some courts ask the following questions to determine whether an employer is guilty of gender discrimination:

1. Was the employee subjected to verbal or physical conduct that amounted to harassment in the workplace?
2. Was the harassing conduct unwelcome?
3. Was the gender discrimination sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment and create a hostile work environment?

To answer these questions about whether an employer is guilty of gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, courts usually look at the following circumstances:

• The frequency of the discrimination based on gender
• The severity of the sex discrimination
• Was the employer’s conduct physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance or trivial?
• Did the sex discrimination unreasonably interferes with an employee’s work performance? 
• As a general matter, playful teasing and isolated incidents, will not amount to gender discrimination.

CALL 800-568-8020 FOR A FREE GENDER DISCRIMINATION CONSULTATION 

At Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik, our gender discrimination lawyers understand how hard it can be when companies single employees out based on their sex or gender. Not only is gender discrimination in the workplace immoral, but it is also illegal and the law is on your side if your company has committed acts of gender discrimination or otherwise created a hostile work environment for you.  Contact our sex discrimination attorneys in California for a free consultation about your employee rights with respect to discrimination in the workplace.

Reverse Discrimination in the Workplace

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibit the firing of “any individual” because of such individual’s race. The racial discrimination laws are not limited to discrimination against members of any particular race. Rather than the federal employment laws and California labor laws being limited to discrimination against members of a particular race, the laws are extended to prohibit racial discrimination in private employment against white persons upon same standards as racial discrimination against nonwhites. 

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CAUCASIANS IN THE WORKPLACE

In one employment discrimination laws, white employees who were fired alleged racial discrimination based on the employer’s failure to discharge African American employees who had engaged in similar ,misconduct. The Court found that the white employees met their burden under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by alleging that the union did not satisfy its duty properly to represent the white employees. Instead of adequately representing the employees reverse discrimination interests, the employees alleged that the union joined in on the employer’s alleged racial discrimination against them.

REVERSE DISCRIMINATION LAWYERS IN SAN DIEGO AND SAN FRANCISCO

If you think that you may have been wrongfully terminated or denied a job opening based on reverse discrimination, contact an employment lawyer at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik. Our reverse discrimination lawyers know how to aggressively represent victims of discrimination in the workplace. We offer employees free consultations about their employee rights and take qualified reverse discrimination lawsuits on a contingency fee basis, meaning employees don’t pay our labor lawyers unless we recover money for them.