Retaliation after reporting workplace harassment can include firing, demotion, pay cuts, schedule changes, or other harmful job actions. This article outlines protected activity, signs of retaliation, evidence to gather, complaint deadlines, and the legal steps involved.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Raising a finger about harassment in the workplace is bold and necessary. Regrettably, not every employer is responsive and professional enough to respond to the law. Those workers who speak up often face new challenges. This includes receiving unfair treatment, being denied promotions, or even termination. This is prohibited and referred to as retaliation.
We’ll explain what retaliation is and what to do if it occurs to you in this blog.
Employer’s retaliation refers to the career-destructive actions a company can impose on an employee who reports, testifies about, or helps in investigating unlawful practices or violations of rights. Retaliation against reporting harassment occurs when an employer (through HR, a manager, or a supervisor) fires an employee or otherwise adversely acts against an employee because the employee reported workplace harassment.
An employer may discipline or fire an employee for participating in protected work-related activities as a form of retaliation. A negative action could also have an adverse effect on the worker’s working conditions or harm their mental or emotional well-being. A pay reduction or tougher work assignments could be examples of this.
These days, harassment at work is defined as unwanted verbal or physical behavior because of your sex, age, disability, race, national origin, religion, or other traits. In actuality, harassment includes sexual jokes, slurs, physical attacks, and/or threats, harassment, acts of retribution, and the presentation of explicit images or objects.
Sexual harassment is one type of harassment that occurs at work. It is among the most prevalent. The act of requesting sexual favors, advances, or other unwanted sexual behavior is part of this. Don’t endure suffering in silence. As soon as you feel that you have been harassed, hire a workplace harassment attorney.
Example: Katy is brewing coffee in the office break area one morning. Dean, her coworker, joins her and approaches Katy awkwardly to grab a coffee filter. Katy tells him to back off after confronting him about the incident. Dean appears perplexed and claims that he was only going for a filter and has no comprehension of what she is discussing. Katy complains about sexual harassment to HR since she is not happy with this explanation. John (Katy’s supervisor) receives the report. He dismisses Katy for fostering a hostile work environment. He believes it to be false. A retaliation lawsuit against her boss can be filed.
Katy was dismissed for reporting harassment. This is important. The fact that the initial occurrence was probably not harassment is irrelevant.
Yes. When you are employed in California, and you narrate to a person all the harassment you are experiencing at your place of employment, you are not in danger. This is because of the law. According to the law, individuals in authority are not allowed to do anything to you when you raise a voice on the things you are witnessing.
This implies that it is impossible to treat you unequally on issues like appearance, whether you are a man or a woman, and disability. In case your boss strikes back at you and makes your work very hard, or when they assign you a different job or fire you, you can sue the company. There are certain things that you need to consider before you take any action.
What Are Your Options?
Get in touch with an attorney. A lawyer can then walk you through the procedure of first talking to your employer and then responding correctly if they are unable to protect you. However, you also need to understand and adhere to the procedure outlined in your company’s job discrimination rules.
What specifically occurred that you perceived as retaliation for disclosing harassment at work? Any negative actions connected to your activity (notifying workplace harassment) are considered retaliation in California. An adverse work environment through threats, disparaging comments, and even more harassment could be considered an “adverse action.”
Reduced work hours, discipline, job reassignment, pay reduction, demotion, or even termination. These are some of the things that you may face. The law also intends to encourage a safe work environment. It allows workers to report wrongdoing by their employer without fear of reprisal.
Do your best to specify what’s happening since you made your report. It’s easier to move forward if you can clearly specify what’s happening to you.
The next task is to collect evidence. It corroborates your account of the events. You must record the instance before you file an issue of workplace harassment and retaliation. It makes a true chronology of the harassment, to start. It helps you retain important facts.
Keep copies of all correspondence & a written record of every incident if possible. Ask for receipts of delivery & review if you reported something via mail.
Ask anyone who witnessed or knew what was happening to provide statements in writing detailing what transpired. Your ability to demonstrate what occurred will improve with the amount of evidence you collect.
Before seeking help elsewhere, think of reporting your problem to the business’s HR department or a manager. Ideally, problems should be addressed before being taken elsewhere. People most familiar with the problem are often best positioned to solve it. By the same token, let your employer know about the issues. Do this even if reporting them does not help. However, it’s time to send your attorney to the California Civil Rights Department if reporting within is not feasible due to concerns about additional consequences or if such allegations are disregarded.
The California Civil Rights Department (previously known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) must receive your complaint prior to filing a lawsuit. You might also be in a position to file a lawsuit with the Labor Commissioner’s Office in instances of retaliation involving health & safety issues.
You must specify in your complaint an act (or lack of an act) that you believe was carried out in retaliation for reporting harassment. This must include any information about what was seen by anyone who witnessed this, in addition to any documentation you might have. Within three years of the retaliation or acts, the complaint must be submitted. The Civil Rights Department will try to assist you in resolving the matter with your employer once you submit.
The Civil Rights Department will send a right-to-sue letter if it is unable to assist you in resolving the matter or if a predetermined amount of time has elapsed. After that, you are free to file a private lawsuit. As the one presenting the lawsuit, you will bear the burden of proof. To guide you through the technically necessary procedures for filing a case, you will require an expert attorney.
Once you file your complaint, the DFEH will send you a right-to-sue letter after its investigation indicates that it cannot settle your case within one year. After receiving this right-to-sue letter, you have one year to file a lawsuit with a California superior court.
You need to explain what you allege happened (retaliation). The FEHA is the main California law that protects workers against harassment & retaliation at work. It is the main legal basis of a civil case. Under FEHA (Section 1294), an employer cannot terminate, discharge, or discriminate against an employee for engaging in any FEHA-protected conduct.
In addition, other than describing your situation, you must be clear on what you want to get out of it (money for compensation, return to work). This is the start of the formal legal process against your employer.
The steps in a lawsuit are predictable, though they may take a while to finish. Discovery is the initial stage of a litigation, during which each party is required to provide the other with evidence. There may be a need for deposits. Either party may try to reach a settlement at any stage of the process, or at the very least, engage in mediation in the hopes of reaching a settlement without going to court.
The matter will go to trial if there is no settlement. The judge or jury will hear presentations from either side. They will determine whether what you are requesting should be granted and whether what you say actually occurred. A lawsuit might take months or even years to settle, so be prepared for this procedure to take some time. You or the other party may make an out-of-court settlement offer at any time during the trial; if it is accepted, the legal action will be dismissed.
Based on its findings of fact, the court may grant you any or all of your requests if it decides in your favor, which means you win. You may have a right to appeal the verdict of the court if it does not decide in your favor. However, an appeal of a trial court’s final decision is not simply asking for a retrial.
Not all losses are appealable; an appeal will only be permitted if the court committed a legal error. You may have a basis for an appeal if you are certain that the court misconstrued the Fair Employment and Housing Act, excluded important evidence or admitted unlawful evidence, made a procedural error, or gave the jury wrong instructions that influenced the verdict. But remember, there is no assurance that an appeal will be successful.
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