If you are old enough to realize that you have a finite number of years left to work before you retire and a finite amount of money to save for retirement, then you might find yourself drawn to aspirational content about the so-called good old days, when everyone allegedly got a generous retirement pension and excellent work-life balance; when they left work at 5:00, their bosses could not bother them again until Monday morning, because in those days, there were no cell phones or email. Technology is not the only thing that has changed in the past few decades. Most of the people in the good old days mythologized in aspirational content were white men, and their wives, who worked tirelessly for no pay, did not have anything resembling what we would call work-life balance. Today, there are legal protections against employment discrimination based on the employee’s ethnic background and many other protected characteristics.
Employment discrimination laws apply to all jobs, not just the cushy salaried jobs where, not too long ago, employees got retirement pensions, and some still have 401(k) accounts. The Boulder ethnic discrimination lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you understand your rights pursuant to employment discrimination laws and file a complaint if your employer has discriminated against you based on your ethnicity.
When Does an Adverse Action Count as Discrimination?
Almost every state, including Colorado, allows employers to hire employees on an at-will basis; at-will employment means that the employee does not have a contract, and the employer can end the employment relationship at any time, even on short notice, and for any reason, or even for no reason at all. Employees who work at will greatly outnumber those who have employment contracts. Even in this context, employers may not fire employees for discriminatory reasons.
Discrimination is when an employer takes an adverse action against an employee because of a protected characteristic of the employee. In other words, it is discrimination when your employer fires you or otherwise takes an adverse action against you because of who you are, not because of the work you did or didn’t do. Adverse actions are almost always upsetting to the employee, but they are often justifiable from the employer’s perspective. The following are examples of adverse actions:
- Not hiring a job applicant
- Negative reviews of employees’ job performance
- Disciplinary write-ups for misconduct
- Reassigning an employee’s tasks, schedule, or work location, except when the employee requested the change
- Not promoting the employee when he or she is eligible for a promotion or applies for one
- Demotion or reducing the employee’s pay
- Terminating the employee’s employment
- Giving the employee a negative reference to other prospective employers after the employment relationship ends
Whether an employer took an adverse action is usually a simple question. Whether the employer took the adverse action out of discrimination based on the employee’s protected characteristic, or whether it was for a justifiable reason, is often open to interpretation. The Boulder ethnic discrimination lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you make a strong case that your employer mistreated you because of your ethnicity instead of merely taking a justifiable adverse action because of something you did wrong.
Ethnicity and Other Protected Characteristics
Protected characteristics are personal characteristics of the employee related to the employee’s family or cultural background, body, or health. Employers cannot discriminate against you based on your age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, or whether you have children. They cannot discriminate based on your race, skin color, or hair texture. It is against the law to discriminate based on an employee’s religious affiliation, religious beliefs, or lack of religiosity. National origin is also a protected characteristic, and in most jobs, as long as you have an immigration status that allows you to work legally in the United States, employers cannot discriminate against you for not being a U.S. citizen, nor can they give preferential treatment to employees from some countries over employees from other countries.
Ethnicity and ethnic background are protected characteristics according to Colorado employment laws. The following are scenarios where an employee might have grounds to file a discrimination complaint, citing ethnic discrimination:
- The employer persistently excludes Latino and Latina employees from leadership positions in the company, even when they are qualified for these positions. The excluded employees come from a variety of backgrounds and were born in a variety of countries, including the U.S.
- An Oromo-speaking employee, originally from Ethiopia, complains that his Amharic-speaking coworkers, also originally from Ethiopia, make insulting comments about him in languages he understands.
- Coworkers make antisemitic comments to an employee who has a Yiddish last name. Her grandparents were Jewish, but the employee herself has never been an adherent of an organized religion.
Ethnicity may not be the only protected characteristic on which people at your workplace focus their discriminatory behavior. The same employment discrimination complaint may cite several protected characteristics. For example, you might complain that your employer discriminated against you based on your ethnic background, sex, and national origin.
A Boulder Employment Lawyer Can Help You Protect Yourself From Ethnic Discrimination
Filing an employment discrimination complaint, whether the discrimination is because of your ethnicity or any other protected characteristic, is a multi-step process. Before you can file your lawsuit in court, you must open a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC will only authorize you to file your lawsuit in court after it investigates your claim and finds corroborating evidence that your employer discriminated against you, and perhaps also against other employees at your workplace. It is never too soon to contact an employment discrimination lawyer. Your claim has a better chance of success if you hire a lawyer to represent you in your dealings with the EEOC.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Ethnic Discrimination
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about ethnic discrimination claims. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
