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When does workplace harassment become illegal?
Most of us maintain friendly and professional relationships with our work colleagues. But no matter what job or industry you work in, you are bound to encounter colleagues you do not get along with or who cause you frustration, anger or make your job more difficult.
This sometimes leads to workplace conflicts. While conflict is to be expected at times, if you are feeling harassed by another employee, you may wonder when the harassing conduct crosses the line and becomes illegal.
According to the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission ("EEOC"), workplace harassment becomes illegal when the unwelcome conduct is based on certain categories. Some of these categories include age, color, disability, national origin, race or religion.
Harassment also becomes illegal when it turns your working environment hostile. A hostile work environment is one where the harassment becomes severe enough to create a substantially negative work environment.
Avoid these mistakes in your workplace discrimination case
You should enjoy the equal employment opportunities that are provided to others at your job. Yet, employers often try to get away with discrimination to force employees out and to avoid recognizing their hard work.
If you've suffered an adverse employment decision because of your status in a protected class, then you should think about taking legal action to hold your employer accountable and to recover the compensation that you're owed.
While a workplace discrimination lawsuit might give you hope, as it should, these cases tend to be complex. And there are several missteps that can be made along the way that can jeopardize your claim. Therefore, you'll want to proceed with care and be cognizant of the mistakes that could cost you your ability to win your case.
Mistakes to avoid in your workplace discrimination case
Your workplace discrimination case might seem straightforward, but it can be complicated by a number of factors, including any errors that you make. To avoid making your case more convoluted, avoid making these mistakes:
Wrongful termination of professionals in Maryland
When a company decides to terminate an employee, a person from human resources or a supervisor may have a conversation with said employee to explain the reasons for the termination. In some cases, the employee may accept these reasons without issue and move on to their next employment opportunity. In other cases, however, the employee may dispute the employer's reasons or find them to be unsatisfactory.
In at-will employment states such as Maryland, even unsatisfactory reasons for termination are acceptable, as long as the reasons are legal. The following examples may constitute legal reasons to terminate an employee:
- The employee was not getting along with their coworkers.
- The employee was regularly absent or late.
- The employee failed to perform up to the standards of the employer.
- The employee violated a workplace policy.
What constitutes a wrongful termination?
If you have been fired for an illegal reason, you may have a valid claim against your employer for wrongful termination. To prove wrongful termination, you will need to establish that your termination violated public policy and that there was a connection between your termination and the public policy. Under federal and state public policies, an employer cannot fire an employee for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons:
5 ways to start building your sexual harassment case
Despite extensive efforts to curtail it, sexual harassment continues to plague Maryland workplaces. This behavior can make a worker feel uncomfortable, threatened, and even endangered. No one deserves to go through that in their workplace.
Making matters worse, though, is the fact that those who report sexual harassment often end up being retaliated against by their employers. As a result, sexually harassed workers can be reassigned, demoted, subjected to reduced hours, or terminated as a result of denying unwanted sexual advances or reporting unacceptable behavior.
If that's happened to you, then you need to find a way to hold your employer accountable while recovering compensation for the harm that's been caused to you. But figuring out where to start can be tough. That's why we want to spend the rest of this post looking at what you can do to position your sexual harassment or retaliation legal claim for success.
What can I do if I am not being paid overtime?
An opportunity to work overtime is something many Maryland employees take advantage of. Maryland law allows most workers to receive 1.5 times their usual hourly wage in overtime, which is defined as any hours worked over 40 in a regular work week.
The term "wages" has various definitions beyond your hourly rate. Bonuses, commissions, tips and fringe benefits are all considered wages that your employer must legally pay you if you are entitled to them.
There are also many different activities that could constitute work. The definition of work is a service performed by an employee at the employer's request, under the employer's control and on the employer's time.
You are not required to perform or accomplish anything to be considered working. If you show up to a job on time and your employer tells you to do nothing for a few hours, you are still considered working and entitled to your hourly rate and any overtime if it applies.
Can my criminal record be held against me?
You are probably familiar with some of the more common types of workplace discrimination, such as those based on race, religion, sex or ethnicity. However, what happens if you believe you are being discriminated against because of your criminal background?
Many jobs today conduct background checks on prospective employees. These background checks often include reviewing a job candidate's criminal history. This could include criminal convictions, arrests or both.
In some cases, yes it can
These background checks are not illegal. In fact, there are some laws that state people with certain types of criminal records cannot be hired for certain jobs, which makes these background checks necessary.
However, the law forbids employers from treating employees with criminal records differently based on their race or natural origin.
Additionally, criminal history policies that are overly broad could be deemed illegal if it is determined that they unfairly exclude certain people or fail to accurately predict who will be a safe and responsible employee.
Age discrimination still all-too-common in the workplace
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which among other things prohibited discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Just three years later, Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which prohibited discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age for those aged 40 or older.
As we all know, discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin has continued despite the law. However, most employers and workers are at least somewhat aware of these protections. By contrast, age discrimination appears to be little understood even today, nearly 60 years after the passage of the ADEA. It's also apparently widespread in American workplaces.
Widespread discrimination
According to a recent AARP survey, over 40% of American workers age 40 and over say they had been discriminated against because of their age within the past three years. A similar number reported that their age is their primary concern when they are looking for work.
When should you settle your employment law claim?
Some employment law cases, like those pertaining to retaliation, wrongful termination, and discrimination, end up heading to trial, but most of these cases end up settling before they get to that point. There are several reasons for this. Employers oftentimes want to avoid the bad publicity created by prolonged litigation, and they might expect to save money by settling rather than paying extensive legal fees and risk being subjected to a larger judgment at trial.
Although you might be tempted to resolve your case sooner rather than later, you should only do so if it's truly in your best interests. But how do you know if that's the case?
Signs that it's time to settle your employment law case
Settlement isn't right for everyone. In fact, depending on the facts of your case, you might recover more compensation by taking your case to trial. But here are some signs that you might be in a position to settle your case:
What is disparate impact discrimination?
Most employers know that intentionally discriminating against workers on the basis of their race, sex, religion or other protected characteristics is illegal. It has been this way for many years. This kind of discrimination still happens more often than it should in American workplaces, and there are still many legal disputes over intentional discrimination. However, employment discrimination doesn't necessarily have to be intentional to be illegal.
Unfair effects
An important legal theory known as "disparate impact" allows workers to hold employers responsible for illegal discrimination without having to prove that the employer's discriminatory practice was intentional. Instead, the workers must prove that an employer's policy has a greatly outsized effect on one group of workers because of their protected status.
The alarming pervasiveness of workplace sexual harassment
While one month (April) is set aside for National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, - discrimination against women based on their gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy at work remains a clear and present danger every month of the year.
A previous EEOC report from 2016 reveals that workplace harassment largely goes unreported, with statistics revealing 90 percent of victims do not take formal action or formally pursue their complaints. What is most alarming is that these types of charges were only two years following the high-profile #MeToo movement.
Alarming data
From 2018 to 2021, the EEOC documented almost 99,000 charges of alleged harassment, with more than 27,000 of those incidents involving sexual harassment. That year and each consecutive year saw an increase from the previous twelve months. Most alarming was the data that revealed more than 35 percent of documented harassment incidents.
To say that women file disproportionate charges would be an understatement. A total of 78.2 percent of sexual harassment claims were filed by women from 2018 to 2021. Out of the 98,000-plus in total harassment charges, women filed more than 62 percent of them.
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