Employment law is in place to protect employees and workers from discrimination but, sadly, this doesn’t always prevent it from happening. One of the first steps is to understand the different types of workplace discrimination you will come across.
While legal experts at Mottaz & Sisk can help you to take action against an employer if they discriminate against you under the labor laws, it’s important to know what constitutes discrimination.
People don’t always realize how many types of workplace discrimination there are, which means they may not be aware when it’s happening to them.
4 types of common workplace discrimination
To get a better idea of what workplace discrimination looks like, take a look at these common examples:
1. Race and Color Discrimination
If your employer treats you differently, refuses to promote you, offers lower pay or fires you because of your race or the color of your skin, it constitutes workplace discrimination. Similarly, if you’re treated differently because of a personal characteristic that’s associated with your race or the color of your skin, this can also be discriminatory and warrant legal action being taken.
2. Sex and Gender Discrimination
Your sex, gender or sexual orientation shouldn’t have any bearing on your employment status or your career prospects, which is why the law is designed to protect people from this type of discrimination too. If a potential employer refuses to hire you or treats you unfavorably because of your sex, gender or sexual orientation, personal injury lawyers can help you to bring a case against them.
3. Retaliation
There are times when discrimination occurs following a particular event and this is known as ‘retaliation’. If you enforce your legal rights and your employer doesn’t like it, for example, they may subsequently fire you or overlook you for future promotions. Sadly, this can happen when employees make a claim for workers’ compensation following an injury or accident in the workplace. Alternatively, retaliation may occur if you make a complaint about workplace discrimination or unsafe practices.
However, the law prevents employers from doing this, so there’s no need to accept the situation. If your employer engages in this type of retaliatory behavior, it’s well worth getting legal advice.
4. Age Discrimination
It’s not unusual for employers to choose to hire people based on their age, even though the law prevents them from doing so. If a business can pay younger workers a lower wage, for example, they may fire older workers in order to reduce their costs. However, this conduct is likely to constitute age discrimination and could, therefore, lead to a subsequent claim for compensation.
Proving workplace discrimination
As you might expect, when employers discriminate against someone, they’re rarely open and honest about their reasons. A manager might not explicitly say that you’re being fired due to your gender, race or age, for example, but, if you suspect something like gender discrimination or another form of discrimination is the case, it’s important to seek advice and assistance.
With help from experienced lawyers, you can establish whether you have cause to bring a case against the business and, if so, how much compensation you could receive. By taking action, you’re also taking a stand against discrimination and helping to ensure fairer opportunities for everyone in the workplace.
Preventing it from happening
In addition, the employer is obliged to take all necessary measures to prevent the disadvantages of her employees covered and described by law. In an emergency, the employer must even take action against her own employees in order to avoid discrimination.
The employer should take preventive measures to prevent discrmination. As soon as individual employees violate the prohibition of discrimination, the employer is obliged to prevent discrimination in individual cases by appropriate, necessary and appropriate measures. These measures include the warning, implementation, but also the transfer or even the termination. However, this can only be considered as an “ultima ratio”. Therefore, it is advisable to establish certain behavioral guidelines for employees in advance.
In the event of discrmination, the employer must take appropriate measures to ensure that it is stopped in the future.
If gender, sexuality, ethnic or other derogatory attitudes find their way into everyday business life, even in the form of jokes, half-serious allusions, etc., the employer is obliged to prevent this. If he does not, he commits a compliance violation. If he does it clearly, he provides prophylaxis against violations.
- If discriminations occur among staff, this is a misconduct of an employee, which the employer does not have to accept in principle.
- Here, the employer must instruct employees to behave non-discriminatorily and enforce it.
- If this does not lead to success, a proper or, in severe cases, immediate termination is possible and may also be necessary.
