What is Employment Discrimination?
Discrimination law is often misunderstood. California, like most states, presumes that employment relationships are "at will," which means that employees can be terminated at any time, for any lawful reason. But even with the at-will presumption, employers cannot fire employees for unlawful reasons. It is unlawful to fire or deny benefits to employees because of their race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy or family responsibilities, or other immutable characteristics.
Example:
An employee who was required to travel extensively for her job became pregnant. When the employee told her manager about the pregnancy, the manager said that the company "couldn't have a mom in this job" and then forced the employee to quit. The employee was clearly terminated because of her pregnancy, and/or her perceived family responsibilities, therefore the employer committed unlawful employment discrimination.
Not all discrimination claims are as clear-cut. Evidence of discrimination typically can be found in biased remarks made by supervisors and co-workers; hiring practices, such as when employees of one ethnicity are systematically replaced with people of another ethnicity; and workplace statistics showing that certain policies or practices have a disparate impact on particular groups.
Free Consultation with San Mateo County Employment Lawyer
If you think you may be a victim of discrimination, I offer a free case evaluation by telephone. Call 650-557-4746 (1-866-290-0424 toll-free) or fill out the contact form on this site to talk to me about your case. My law office is located in San Bruno in San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco.
