Discrimination and Harassment: Know Your CA Law Protections

While the terms discrimination and harassment often are used together, they mean different things under California law. In general, you have the right to be protected from both in the workplace when the harassment or discrimination is based on a legally protected characteristic.

Understanding Discrimination and Harassment

Discrimination occurs when an employee is treated unfairly or unequally based on one or more legally protected characteristics in contexts such as hiring, firing, promotion, pay, training, or other terms and conditions of employment.

Harassment includes unwelcome conduct based on one or more protected characteristics that results in a hostile work environment. Unwelcome conduct can include sexual jokes or talk, inappropriate touching, and sharing sexually explicit content. Harassment also includes “quid pro quo” sexual harassment, where a manager or supervisor conditions a workplace benefit on sexual favors. Sexual harassment need not be motivated by sexual desire to violate the law.

In California, legally protected characteristics include race, color, religion (including dress and grooming practices), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition , military or veteran status, national origin, ancestry, disability, genetic information, age (over 40), or a combination of these.

California law also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who report discrimination and harassment.

Reporting Discrimination and Harassment

To take legal action against discrimination or harassment against you, you must first report the violation within three years of the last violation to the California Civil Rights Division. You can obtain a right-to-sue notice from the Civil Rights Department if you wish to file your own lawsuit. Before reporting harassment and discrimination, you should gather all available documents that evidence discrimination or harassment against you, so that you can include them in your report.

Remedies

Employers found liable for discrimination or harassment may be required to pay actual damages for injuries or losses, back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees and costs.

Angulo Law, A.P.C. can assist you with evaluating your potential discrimination and/or harassment claim against your employer.