Workplace Employment Discrimination Lawyer

California's FEHA (the Fair Employment & Housing Act) prohibits harassment and discrimination in employment on the basis of:

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• Sex or gender
• Sexual orientation
• Marital status
• National origin
• Ancestry
• Disability (mental and physical, including HIV and AIDS)
• Medical condition (including cancer or genetic characteristics)
• Age (40 and above)
• Pregnancy FMLA
• Marital Status
• Gender Express (Transgender, Cross Dressers)
• Ancestry
• Gender Identity
• Military or Veteran Status

Generally, employment discrimination claims generally must be filed with Department of Fair Employment and Housing within one year of the alleged discrimination. For this reason, you should never let an employment issue linger, as you may miss out on your chance to obtain justice. For complex consultations with one of our experienced workplace discrimination lawyers about whether continuing discriminatory conduct that occurred more than a year ago can be sued for call (323) 525-1600. In addition, we can assess whether the California Constitution can be used to sue for employment discrimination three years back. Case law has held the California Constitution covers claims of pregnancy discrimination even if the employer does not have 5 employees. Case law has also held the California Constitution covers other claims of employment discrimination in which an employee is denied the ability to earn their livelihood.

Defining race itself is sometimes a challenge, especially given that complex genetic distinctions are involved and many acts of discrimination are based on other protected characteristics such as national origin and religion. However, Black, Hispanic and Middle Eastern workers are the most frequent victims of acts driven by race discrimination, including:

• Failure to hire job applicants or promote workers because of their race
• Racial harassment, including subjection to racial and ethnic slurs
• Requiring job applicants to provide their race as part of the application-and-hiring process
• Subjection of workers to unfair or inequitable conditions based on their race or ethnicity
• Retaliation against a worker for reporting race discrimination, including wrongful termination or creation of intolerable conditions that may force resignation

Within the last few years, we have also seen a number of “reverse discrimination” cases, including those of workers who are not Asian being terminated, workers who are not Hispanic are terminated or given less desirable work, and a range of other such situations.

Sadly, the ethnic diversity of Los Angeles County may be creating issues of national origin, race discrimination, and religious discrimination in the Los Angeles County workforce. During 2008-2012, 35.8% of Los Angeles County's residents were foreign born. Such a large influx of foreign born residents may make non-foreign born workers, even of the same ancestry, angry which breeds unfair discriminatory treatment at work. Even amongst the Latino population there are issues of discrimination against those born in the United States, those not born in the United States, and those who are not legally authorized to work in the United States.

Blacks continue to be only a small portion of Los Angeles County's population at approximately 9.3%. Any small, but different, part of a population can become a target for discrimination by the larger masses. Latinos comprise 48.2% of Los Angeles County's population. As Latinos become the dominant population in Los Angeles County, they move into a position to discriminate against smaller minorities. As the Latino population increases in Los Angeles that may anger white co-workers who in turn discriminate against Latino co-workers. Thus, the reasons why national origin discrimination cases are on the rise in California.

Oddly, UCLA remains the only UC campus that does not have a mandatory diversity class as part of its undergraduate curriculum. The student population at UCLA is almost 40% Asian which is yet another anomaly. Students attending Los Angeles college campuses need to be prepared for the diverse nature of Los Angeles' workplace, and so do employees. If you have questions about what might be discrimination at work, feel free to call our firm and speak to an experienced Los Angeles County Discrimination Lawyer at (323) 525-1600.

We understand that the pain and stress of working where racism is tolerated can be overwhelming. Employers are required by law not only to refrain from engaging in or promoting race discrimination and harassment, but also to take action to stop discrimination harassment at work.

Speaking out and taking action to expose racial discrimination takes courage, and we support people who do so with the full weight of our knowledge and resources. Your situation may call for first steps including the filing of a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), and we can advise you on the action likely to be most effective for you.

• $305,000 Sexual Harassment of a Southeastern Los Angeles Pizza Delivery Lady
• $216,575 Leave of Absence Termination
• $182,500 Cancer Discrimination Termination
• $165,000 for a Sexually Harassed 18 Year Old El Monte Student
• $125,000 Settlement on Age Discrimination During Calabasas Layoff
• $150,000 Settlement on Disability Discrimination & Termination
• PINEDO V. PREMIUM TOBACCO A PUBLISHED APPEAL OF OURS INVOLVING ANCESTRY DISCRIMINATION OF A NATIVE AMERICAN

Because Los Angeles County is geographically large, we are ready to meet new clients in our Sherman Oaks office (same location since 1999), our downtown Los Angeles office or Gardena office. If you live in Lancaster or Palmdale, we can even meet you in our Bakersfield office if that is closer to you. While some lawyers sign their clients up over the phone, due to the complexities and seriousness of the employment cases we become involved in we highly suggest you take the time to sit down with one of our experienced employment lawyers. Meet us, show us relevant documents from your place of employment, meet our staff, and see our office.

To request a consultation, call (323) 525-1600 toll free or send us an e-mail inquiry today. While we understand some might view e-mail as less personal, we would prefer to hear from you directly. Let our experienced discrimination lawyers ask you the right questions to see if you have a case. A lot of what is legally relevant in an employment case is not necessarily known of to the client, nor capable of being expressed well in an e-mail. Our diverse staff has the ability to accommodate and represent people of any national origin and any field of employment, statewide in California.

EEOC LAWYER

National Origin Discrimination Los Angeles

Immigrants from many nations and U.S. citizens of nearly every ethnic background have always been essential contributors to The California workforce. Our railroads were built with Chinese laborers. Los Angeles was settled by Blacks, Native American Indians, Indians from Mexico, and Spaniards. The Hollywood movie industry was largely fueled by Jewish immigrants. Japanese fishermen populated San Pedro before World War 2, and the list goes on.

Sadly, however, workers who look, speak or dress differently than what is perceived as the “Norm” often face harassment and discrimination that holds them back financially and creates severe emotional stress.

An employee's national origin, along with their ethnic background, religion and more, are protected characteristics under both the United States Federal Labor Laws (Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, and FLSA) and California state employment laws (FEHA and California Labor Code). This means employees may well have a valid claim or lawsuit, with the potential to recover substantial damages from your employer, if they suffer discrimination or harassment based on nationality. There have been numerous million dollar and multi-million dollar Los Angeles Superior Court jury verdicts in cases of race discrimination wrongful termination in recent years.

Employment discrimination based on national origin affects people of many different backgrounds and the perpetrators themselves are not all whites of European descent. Historically, numerous prominent lawsuits have been brought by the EEOC and private law firms on behalf of people of Mexican or other Hispanic descent, Chinese or other Asian descent and other individuals and classes. Today, people from Middle Eastern nations such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia are increasingly mistreated at work. In 2014 our firm concluded a Ventura County case in which a car salesman from Jordan was referred to as a, “Camel jockey,” he was photographed with a scarf the manager terms a, “Turpin,” and was accused of being dumb or packing weapons because he was from the Middle East.

We have seen a number of cases in which Mexicans mistreat Salvadorians, Latin Americans mistreat Central American workers they believe are too vocal on employee rights issues, Koreans mistreat Mexicans, Koreans mistreat Indians (one of our cases in which our Indian client was discriminated against settled for more than $100,000), and Americans are mistreated by immigrant employers. We are also involved increasing numbers of anti-Arab cases in which employees from the Middle East are harassed on the basis of their national origin and religion. Based upon the prevalent nature of our law practice for California workforce, we must sadly say national origin discrimination in employment is on the rise.