What is Discrimination at Workplace?
Discrimination at workplace is one of the more misunderstood legal concepts among employees. Many workers assume that discrimination means being treated poorly or being treated unfairly at work. However, this is incorrect. If you are an at-will employee, it's not illegal for your employer to treat you or terminate you unfairly. To prove discrimination, an employee (or his lawyer) must show through specific evidence that he was treated different because he or she was a member of protected class - i.e. race, disability, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, familiar status, and a few other protected categories of employees.
Simply being black or being disabled or being Jewish or being gay doesn't prove that this was the reason for demotion or termination or any other adverse employment action. For instance, an African American employee or an employee with a serious back injury can be terminated for a variety of unrelated, non-discriminatory reasons. These can include all kinds of misconduct, poor performance, poor attendance and other employer policies violations, etc. Proving and having evidence to show the "because of" part - that the true reason for the termination was discrimination and not some other unrelated reason is they key to making a discrimination or wrongful termination case.
There is a number of "direct" and "indirect" ways to prove discrimination or at least show that discrimination was one of the motivating factors for firing an employee. An experienced employment attorney should be able to go over your employment situation or your termination to determine whether there is sufficient evidence of discrimination against you to make a claim.
Simply being black or being disabled or being Jewish or being gay doesn't prove that this was the reason for demotion or termination or any other adverse employment action. For instance, an African American employee or an employee with a serious back injury can be terminated for a variety of unrelated, non-discriminatory reasons. These can include all kinds of misconduct, poor performance, poor attendance and other employer policies violations, etc. Proving and having evidence to show the "because of" part - that the true reason for the termination was discrimination and not some other unrelated reason is they key to making a discrimination or wrongful termination case.
There is a number of "direct" and "indirect" ways to prove discrimination or at least show that discrimination was one of the motivating factors for firing an employee. An experienced employment attorney should be able to go over your employment situation or your termination to determine whether there is sufficient evidence of discrimination against you to make a claim.