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Each Employment Discrimination
case is different. That is why you must contact an
attorney to see if you have any rights. But all Employment
Discrimination cases share some common traits. This
Article discusses some of those traits.
To prove an Employment
Discrimination case you must show several things. First,
you must be able to show that something bad happened to
you in your employment. This can be as simple as being
fired, not receiving a promotion or not being hired for a
job. Or it can complex like not given the proper training
to complete the job, not being given the opportunity to
apply for a promotion or not being treated the same as
others in the same workplace. This "bad
treatment" (Employment Discrimination) does not have
to be one single event. It can be a series of events which
happen over time. Take, for example, sexual harassment.
You can sue for sexual harassment if a person makes sexual
or other unwelcome remarks to you not once, but over
several years or months. The sexual harassment is an
ongoing "bad treatment."
After you can show you have
had some "bad treatment" you need to show that
this "bad treatment" in your workplace was
because of some "illegal reason." What this
means is that the person who allegedly discriminated
against you did this "bad treatment" because he
or she didn't like your skin color, your religion, because
of your sex, because you exercised your rights under the
law to unionize, etc. (All of these "illegal
reasons" are spelled out in federal and state
discrimination laws.) If this "bad treatment"
was because of some "illegal reason" then you
can move on to the next step. But, if the reason for the
"bad treatment" was because of your hair color,
because you didn't get along with everyone or because you
weren't performing in your job then it is unlikely you can
succeed in your employment discrimination case.
However, if your employer
claims you received this "bad treatment" for a
"legitimate business reason" (or lies about the
treatment or the reason for the treatment) then the
situation become more complex. If an employer can offer a
"legitimate business reason" for the treatment,
and it is true, then you will lose your Employment
Discrimination case. (An example of a "legitimate
business reasons" is that you are not qualified for
the job.) But if the "legitimate business
reason" is just a cover-up for some "illegal
reason", a "pretext," then you have to
prove that this "legitimate business reason" is
false when you prove your case in court. That is, you have
to prove this "pretext" (the cover-up) is false
and the real reason for the "bad treatment" is
the "illegal reason" not the
"pretext."
NOTE: This is where it
becomes complex to determine whether the reason for this
"bad treatment" was because of some
"illegal reason" or not; and this is where an
attorney can help. There are a lot of laws which provide
illegal reasons for "bad treatment." If an
employer violated one of these laws then you can sue them,
if an employer did not then basically you can't.
The next step to proving
your Employment Discrimination case is proving that you
fall in a "protected class." Being in a
"protected class" just means that you were a
person that is supposed to be protected when Congress, or
your state Legislature, wrote the discrimination law. For
example, to file a suit under the Americans with
Disabilities Act you must have some sort of disability to
be in the "protected class." Most people usually
fit into the "protected class."
There are also several
other things which you may have to prove in your case.
These depend on what type of case you have. For example,
if you are trying to say you were not hired because of
your race for a job, you must prove that you were
qualified for the job. Further, you would have to prove
that the job was still open after you applied for it.
These other requirements vary from case to case and depend
on which law you are suing under.
One of the most important
aspects about Employment law is, however, that you must
see an attorney almost immediately after you think you
have been discriminated against. The law allows only a
very short amount of time to file a lawsuit before you are
prevented from succeeding in your lawsuit. If you have a
federal employment claim you must notify the EEOC within
180 days of the "bad treatment." If you do not
you are generally forever barred from filing a lawsuit.
A
lot of people are very curious about what they could
recover if they are successful in their lawsuit.
Generally, if you are successful in your suit you might be
able to recover the following:
-
Back
Wages (money you would have received if you had worked
for the company the whole time up until the time of
your trial);
-
Front
Pay (money paid for theoretically working for some
time in the future--for example two years salary);
-
Consequential
Damages (money for just being discriminated against);
-
Punitive
Damages (money received because the court decided to
punish the company for discriminating against you);
and
-
Attorneys'
Fees (money usually paid to your attorney for working
on the case).
Employment
law is a complex area of law. It generally requires
professional legal help. But if you had to sum up
Employment Discrimination in a sentence or two it would
basically be this: If you have been received "bad
treatment" in your workplace because of some
"illegal reason" then you might have an
Employment Discrimination case. But, remember you must
have received this "bad treatment" because of
the "illegal reason."
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