Many employment law matters involve issues related to work contracts or statutory requirements. Employers have numerous obligations that they must fulfill or risk facing legal action brought by workers. When companies violate safety rules or ignore the terms of an employment contract, the affected workers may take legal action against the organization that employs them.
Occasionally, employees initiate litigation over civil rights matters. Scenarios involving discrimination can be a violation of an individual worker’s civil rights. Discrimination allegations could arise because a company considered the wrong factors when making employment decisions. There are numerous characteristics protected by federal law. Employers should not consider those characteristics when making decisions about who they promote or hire.
Those characteristics should not influence decisions during staff reductions due to business changes either. Mergers and other scenarios that result in layoffs or widespread terminations at a company do sometimes lead to allegations of discrimination from the workers affected.
When are terminations discriminatory?
Employers typically do not tell employees that they fired them or laid them off because they were over the age of 40 or a member of a certain religion. In fact, discrimination during staffing reductions may be the result of an unconscious bias. The internal bias of those in positions of authority can influence the decisions they make about who they keep and who they retain.
Workers may recognize the warning signs of discrimination in cases where certain characteristics seem to have influenced employment decisions. If the pool of workers terminated contains everyone over a certain age or almost all employees from a specific race, that can be an indicator that the company may have improperly considered protected characteristics when making decisions.
Looking at who retained their jobs can also provide insight. Perhaps not a single male employee lost their job, but a significant number of female workers did. When there seem to be obvious trends regarding who the company kept and who got let go, workers may have reason to question whether the company may have violated their civil rights.
Pursuing a discrimination-based lawsuit after a firing or layoff as part of a staffing reduction effort can help employees obtain justice. Companies may have to compensate those wrongfully terminated due to discrimination.
