Family members from the older generations may have encouraged you to solve your problems by speaking up about them; they may have counseled you that the first step to getting someone to stop doing something that bothers you is to tell the person how much it bothers you. Plenty of young adult fiction books and movies aimed at children and teenagers send the same message. In a perfect world, people would stop antagonizing you as soon as you told them that their behavior came across as antagonistic; everyone would reward honesty with honesty.
Of course, if you are old enough to have earned a paycheck during two consecutive pay periods, then you know that this is not always how the world works. Humans are as craven and as petty as they are trustworthy and magnanimous. Sometimes people punish you for your honesty or for standing up for yourself. In employment law, it is against the law for employers to retaliate against employees for complaining, formally or informally, about discrimination that they encounter in the workplace. The Bozeman retaliation for complaining about discrimination lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, can help you file a discrimination complaint and, if applicable, deal with the fallout.
Protected Characteristics and Protected Activities
Employment discrimination is when an employer takes an adverse action against an employee because of a protected characteristic of the employee. Meanwhile, employer retaliation is when an employer takes an adverse action against an employee because the employee engaged in a protected activity. This all sounds like so much legalese, so what are protected characteristics, and what are protected activities?
Protected characteristics are things that employees have the right to be. It sounds counterintuitive that the law should give you the right to be these things, because protected characteristics are such stable and fundamental aspects of who you are that it is either not possible to change them, or else, a person might change them one or more times in a lifetime, but only with great effort. Marital status is a protected characteristic, and most people change their marital status from single to married at least once. Likewise, religion is a protected characteristic, and it is possible to be initiated into a religious community as a child or as an adult, and some people convert from one religion or denomination to another. According to the Montana Human Rights Act, the recognized protected characteristics are race, religion, age, sex, national origin, marital status, and disability. Montana law does not recognize sexual orientation as a protected characteristic, but Bozeman and several other cities in Montana have passed laws that acknowledge it as such.
Likewise, protected activities are things that employees have the right to do. It makes sense to enshrine these rights in the law, because if employees could have their way, employees would not do these things, because they can be costly for the employer or damage the employer’s reputation. The following are protected activities in Montana:
- Filing a workers’ compensation claim if you get injured in a workplace accident or receive a diagnosis of an occupational disease
- Reporting safety violations in your workplace to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- Taking a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave because of your own illness or a family member’s illness, or because of the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child
- Filing a discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the Montana Human Rights Bureau
- Requesting accommodations for a disability
- Reporting a suspected crime you witnessed to law enforcement
- Cooperating with a criminal investigation or a civil investigation about misconduct involving your workplace or its employees
If the Discrimination Doesn’t Get You, the Retaliation Will
Summoning the courage to file a discrimination complaint is hard work. Pursuing a discrimination claim is a multi-step process, and it usually only begins when you have reached your breaking point with the discrimination that prompted the complaint. You must explain your situation to a counselor at the EEOC or Montana Human Rights Bureau and then, assuming that your employer has not yet fired you, continue with your work as normally as possible until the Bureau or EEOC authorizes you to file your lawsuit in court.
Employer retaliation for complaining about discrimination can begin even before you contact the EEOC or the Human Rights Bureau. Most plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases start by complaining to their direct supervisors, the supervisors of their supervisors, or the company’s human resources department. If the complaint makes it to the Bureau or the EEOC, it means that things got worse when the employee tried to resolve the problem from within the workplace. In the most egregious cases, the employer takes an undeniable adverse action, such as demoting the employee or changing his or her schedule against the employee’s wishes.
More often, though, the employer simply makes life more difficult for the employee. This could take the form of micromanagement, constantly shifting expectations, or social exclusion, to name just a few manifestations of the adverse action known as the hostile work environment. As much as a hostile work environment is meant to annoy you and break your concentration, you should document every instance of hostile behavior so that you can mention it to the Bureau or the EEOC when you initiate your complaint.
A Bozeman Employment Lawyer Can Help You Exercise Your Right to Complain About Discrimination
If you are experiencing discrimination at work, the time to talk to an employment discrimination lawyer is now. Your employment discrimination lawyer can represent you in your dealings with the EEOC or Montana Human Rights Bureau and can help you stay focused if your employer tries to retaliate against you after you complain about discrimination.
Get in Touch with HKM About Employer Retaliation
The Bozeman employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, can counsel you about employer retaliation claims arising from discrimination complaints. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Bozeman, Montana, to set up a consultation.
