Do You Know How to Assert Your Job Rights?
When state or federal law defines required or prohibited actions for employers dealing with employees, these actions define certain job rights. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of the following basis: age, disability, equal pay/compensation, genetic information, harassment, national origin, pregnancy, race, color, religion, retaliation, sex, sexual harassment, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
For those of you who have followed the Drawing a Line Blog and podcast, you have heard us say that harassment and discrimination behavior at work typically continue to occur unabated until the victim “draws a line,” by complaining about the inappropriate conduct. One way to do this is to tell the harasser “NO” or “STOP.”
Unfortunately, many harassers have a self-important conceited opinion of their entitlement to continue their conduct. They often engage in retaliatory conduct when confronted.
Often, when a victim complains verbally within the company, the employer’s response to an enforcement agency is to state that “we have no record of any complaint in this matter.”
You can protect your rights by asserting your rights. If you are presenting an internal complaint, you can protect your rights by making your complaint in writing and submitting it to a higher-level manager or to the human resources department. This has the effect of documenting the complaint in a format that must be responded to.
You can assert your rights even further by presenting your complaint externally to the EEOC or to a state or municipal fair employment practice agency. These agencies will document your complaint as a signed “Charge of Discrimination” which is submitted to the employer and requires them to reply within a specified time period.
In the event that you elect to pay for and retain an attorney to represent you in this matter, the attorney will contact the employer on your behalf and present what I call “a demand letter” that cites the alleged offenses and stipulates that the matter may be settled for a specific amount of relief and damages.
Some attorneys may instruct you to submit a Charge of Discrimination and then request a “Right to Sue” letter, a prerequisite that allows the matter to be taken to court as a lawsuit (but not required under the Equal Pay Act).
The written communication of a complaint or a formal charge of discrimination documents your complaint action and provides further protection from retaliation for the exercise of your rights under the law. Even if the circumstances of the original complaint may be difficult to prove, any subsequent retaliatory action may be easier to prove.
Recognize that keeping a record of sexual harassment or discriminatory incidents citing specific dates, times, any witnesses, and describing the nature of the conduct, along with collecting any evidence showing unwanted sexual or discriminatory communications such as texts, e-mails, voice mails, or graphic images are elements that help to prove the allegations.
It is important to recognize that filing a charge of discrimination does not prevent an employer from dealing with legitimate employment shortcomings or issues that may have occurred before or after a discrimination complaint.
Sources consulted
Discrimination by Type | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (eeoc.gov)
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