Recently, one employee of Caltrans contacted me in what seemed to be an urgent need for help and legal representation, as she was subjected to egregious harassment by her supervisor, and could not get any help from the higher management or human resources department. Her supervisor openly and repeatedly disregarded her disability limitations in t he most humiliating manner. The same Caltrans employee kindly shared with me a rather disturbing article about the discrimination and harassment that's taking place in the Caltrans Oakland office. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment of employees in large public offices is not as uncommon as one might think. One reasons for this seems to be the impunity which some of the managers enjoy for such violations. The perpetrators of discrimination and their superiors are rarely terminated and usually get a slap on the wrist in the form of a confident reprimand letter or a warning, while costing the city, county or state department many thousands of dollars in legal fees and in settlement. 1 Comment Often, an employee is subjected to unlawful discrimination and retaliation while still employed and weeks or even months before being terminated. Although very "tempting," suing an employer while still employed is problematic. First, you are very likely to lose a job (just because it's unlawful to terminate an employee who exercises his legal rights to bring legal actions, doesn't mean that the employer simply can't violate the law and do it). Secondly, your recovery in any case is likely to be insignificant because you have not sustained any loss of wages, which is at the core of any settlement or judgment. Under California law, an employer is required to promptly and thoroughly investigate any claim of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. The obligation to investigate arises out of the affirmative duty under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, Cal. Gov. Code section 12940(j) and (k) to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent discrimination and harassment from occurring. The duty to investigate a harassment claim promptly and throughly exists whether or not the claimant consents to an investigation or cooperates with one. Further, neither an employee’s failure to report harassment nor the fact that the harassment stopped before the investigation began conclusively absolve an employer from liability for discrimination and harassment. Moreover, it is not enough for an employer to conduct an investigation without also taking measure to protect the employee from retaliation. Several laws protect California women from pregnancy discrimination at workplace. These laws interact with each other in complex ways. Each law and protection may or may not apply depending on the size of the employer, the employee’s length of service, and other facts. Some leaves run concurrently, while others don’t. | Categories
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