One of the biggest concerns any victim of employment discrimination can have is whether their job may be impacted if they file a claim. For victims of employment discrimination, there is good news and bad news. Let’s start with the good news, which is that employees are protected by law from retaliation for reporting discrimination against themselves or a co-worker. The bad news is that this legal protection has not meant that retaliation has disappeared from the workplace. In fact, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency that enforces federal employment discrimination laws, while the overall number of discrimination complaints filed with its office went down last year, the percentage of those complaints based on retaliation reached an all-time high.

In this post, I’ll talk about the legal protections given to employees who file or assist with an employment discrimination claim and address some common concerns of those employees. If you believe you’ve been the victim of discrimination at work, but are concerned about the consequences of reporting the incident to your employer or filing a formal claim, please contact Eisenberg & Baum. We have a group of experienced employment discrimination attorneys who can explain your rights as a victim of discrimination and help you decide the best way to address your particular claim.

Retaliation is Prohibited By Law

As we’ve discussed in prior blog posts, federal and state laws, including the New York Human Rights Law, protect employees from discrimination in the workplace. It is against the law for an employer to make an adverse employment decision based on a protected characteristic like gender, age, race or religion. Now, imagine if an employer were allowed to punish an employee for complaining about discrimination in the workplace, like for example, a male manager sexually harassing his female employees. The business and its employees would experience a “quieting effect” where the employees would be afraid to speak out against the harassment for fear of the impact to their jobs and livelihood. For this reason, in addition to protecting employees from discrimination based on certain protected categories, federal law and the New York Human Rights Law prohibit employers from taking adverse action against an employee because the employee filed a discrimination complaint. Adverse action could include demotion, reduction in pay, firing, or any other action that would dissuade a reasonable person from making a similar complaint.

Can I Still Be Disciplined After I File an Employment Discrimination Claim?

Although the law protects an employee from retaliation after filing a discrimination claim, the employee generally continues to be subject to their normal terms of employment. In addition, employees in most states, including New York, are considered to be employed “at will” by default, meaning they can be terminated from their job for any reason or no reason at all, as long as that reason is not illegal. As a result, an employee who has filed a discrimination complaint may still be subject to discipline or other adverse employment actions for reasons that are not discriminatory or illegal, but employers have to be very careful in this area. If an employee can connect an adverse action taken against them back to their employment discrimination complaint, they will have a retaliation claim on top of their discrimination claim against the employer.

What if I Lose My Claim?

An employee who believes they’ve been the victim of discrimination nonetheless may be concerned about what could happen if they don’t win their claim or if they turn out to be wrong. Could their employer then discipline or fire them because they filed the complaint? The short answer is no. As long as the employee had a reasonable, good faith belief that the employment practice about which they complained was illegal, any attempt by the employer to punish the employee for filing the claim would still be considered retaliation.

Talk to an Attorney

If you’re concerned about coming forward with an employment discrimination claim and are afraid of being retaliated against by your employer, you should contact an attorney. An experienced employment discrimination attorney can advise you about the merits of your claim, the best way to pursue it, and the protections you have as a complainant. Eisenberg & Baum is ready and able to help you with your discrimination or retaliation claims, and we encourage you to contact us for a free initial consultation.Though we’re based in New York City, we have attorneys licensed in many states throughout the country and we can also become admitted pro hac vice with local counsel in other states where we are not currently admitted, so we can help no matter where you are.