Santa Barbara Employment Law Blog

When workers in California file a complaint related to sexual harassment or other workplace issues, they may find themselves the target of workplace retaliation. In fact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that the discrimination findings based on retaliation has been as high as 53% in the past decade.

The EEOC reminds employers that they can not demote, fire or harass individuals for filing discrimination complaints. Employees are also protected when they oppose incidents of discrimination or participate in ongoing proceedings. The federal agency states that one of the reasons for its commitment to preventing retaliation is that it discourages workers from cooperating with agents during an investigation.

When the #MeToo movement first took off in California, few people expected it to spread in the way it did. Celebrities, politicians and business moguls all across the United States continue to find themselves haunted and even incarcerated by the sins of their past, involving unethical and illegal behavior regarding their treatment of women. In some instances, the victims are even underage girls.

While a lot of the focus is on what men do in the workplace and positions of power, there is not enough research on why. According to psychologists who spoke to CNBC, one of the big reasons men harass women is territorialism. They want to protect their own occupational territory from the invasion of women. This is most likely to happen in male-dominated fields, such as tech, medicine, the military and politics.

When employees in California lose their jobs under unfair circumstances, many of them shrug it off as normal and simply move on to another job. For others, the transition process is more difficult. It may take weeks or months to find another job and it may not be as high-paying as the one they lost. When seeking new employment, recruiters may also be reluctant to hire employees for top positions if they were fired from their last job. So, what can these employees do?

According to Forbes, unless an individual is protected by specific inclusions in an individual contract or is part of a collective bargaining agreement, employers can fire them at any reason for any time. This is somewhat true, but not entirely. California has put laws in place to make some firing situations illegal. Here are a few of these instances:

• When firing the employee goes against the contractual agreement, such as proposed length of contract
• If firing the employee is in retaliation, such as after sexual harassment claims
• When the reason for firing the employee is based on discrimination 
• If the employee is fired because they exercised a legal right

When people in California talk about discrimination, most of the conversation veers toward racial, sex and LGBTQ discrimination. However, one other aspect of workplace discrimination that deserves more attention is religious discrimination. Some companies have found new ways to avoid hiring or promoting workers that belong to certain faiths by creating restrictions based on dress codes for some positions.

Business Insider reports that in 2018, UPS paid $4.9 million to employees for alleged discrimination that followed this formula. The company’s uniform policy restricted male employees from having facial hair below the lips or growing their hair beyond collar-length. While the rule did not apply to workers who worked in the back-office, it did mean employees could not hold certain jobs, which restricted upward mobility in the company. UPS employees who practiced Rastafarianism, Islam, Sikhism, Orthodox Christianity and similar faiths all suffered the consequences. Native Americans were also affected.