Federal, State, and local Los Angeles employment laws make it unlawful for your employer to discriminate against you on the basis of your race, ethnicity, and/or national origin. Unfortunately, despite laws making race-based employment discrimination illegal, racism is not uncommon in the workplace. In 2023, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) reported receiving over 29,000 claims of workplace discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and or national origin. Unreported instances of discrimination sure make the rates of race discrimination at work in California even higher. If you believe you are experiencing race discrimination, or discrimination based on ethnicity or national origin, you are not alone.
Dealing with discrimination at work is incredibly stressful. Luckily employment attorneys are legal professionals dedicated to advocating for employees who are experiencing mistreatment or hardship. An employment attorney specializing in racial discrimination can help you understand your options, advocate for you against discrimination, and potentially recover the monetary damages that you deserve. If you are experiencing discrimination based on race in Los Angeles, finding the right LA based attorney is key.
Understanding Racial Discrimination and Harassment in the Workplace
Discrimination Based on Race, Ethnicity, and National Origin involves the differential treatment of employees based on their race, ethnicity, and or national origin. It is illegal for an employer to treat an employee unfavorably because of their racial background or qualities related to their racial background such as skin color, hair texture, or other physical features. It is likewise prohibited for an employer to treat an employee unequally due to their ethnicity or country of origin, or due to qualities relating to their ethnicity or birthplace such as their cultural practices, or accent. Employers cannot base employment decisions including but not limited to hiring, promotion, pay, workplace opportunities, benefits, and training based on an employee’s race, ethnicity, or national origin. Employees, regardless of race, are entitled to be paid equally for their work. In 2017 the California Equal Pay Act was amended to include race, ethnicity, and national origin, making race-based wage discrimination unlawful under California state law.
Harassment based on race, like discrimination, is illegal in the workplace. Harassment, including racial slurs, jokes, comments, and racially offensive symbols regarding race, ethnicity, or national origin is illegal in the workplace if the harassment is severe or pervasive so as to rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment.
How Can an Attorney Help You Fight Workplace Injustice
If you are experiencing racial discrimination or harassment at work, reach out to an employment law attorney specializing in race discrimination. Employment attorneys will be able to help you understand your options and navigate a legal path forward.
Assessing Your Potential Claims
It can be hard to determine whether the mistreatment you are experiencing at work legally qualifies as race-based discrimination. Whether or not you have a legal claim, and the strength of that claim, is entirely case dependent, and may depend on factors outside of your control. When determining whether or not you should file a lawsuit, it is important to consider not only what happened to you, but a multitude of other factors including when it happened, what evidence you have to show that it happened, and what else was happening in your workplace at the time. An employment law attorney can help you make legal sense of what you are experiencing, and help you decide what your options are based on the facts of your situation. Consult with an attorney to understand your options.
Gathering Evidence to Build a Case
It is advantageous to reach out to an employment attorney as soon as possible regarding potential racial discrimination claims you may have so that they can provide advice on how to build a strong case. In order to hold your employer accountable, you will need to prove that they have discriminated against you by presenting evidence of the discrimination. An employment lawyer can help you compile the evidence that you will need to present a legally compelling case.
Meeting Essential Deadlines
Employment law claims are subject to statutes of limitations. If you miss the deadline to bring a case, you risk losing your right to pursue that particular claim. Contact an attorney promptly so that they can advise you of any pending deadlines that might impact your ability to pursue justice. All employment claims have a statute of limitations.
Negotiating Directly with Your Employer
An employment attorney may be able to help you to negotiate directly with your employer, foregoing the court system. In this instance, an attorney may send a demand letter to your employer or former employer. A demand letter typically lays out your claims, the facts of your case, and warns of your intent to file a court complaint against your employer if they do not agree to negotiate with you. Usually, a demand letter will include a proposed settlement agreement that you would be amenable to in lieu of pursuing litigation. Your lawyer will draft the demand letter, and will likely call you to review its contents before sending it to your employer to kick off direct negotiations.
Filing a Race Discrimination Lawsuit
You and your attorney may decide that the best path forward is to file a lawsuit in state or federal court. If this is the path you chose, a race discrimination employment attorney will file a complaint in court. The progress of any court case is situational and depends on the facts and interests of the parties. Your case may resolve quickly or may take years before going to trial. As the case unfolds, your attorney will advocate for you in front of a judge, and ultimately the jury, against your employer and their legal team. Note, if you signed an arbitration agreement, then the process would proceed through arbitration.
Recovering Monetary and Non-Monetary Damages
By negotiating directly with your employer or advocating on your behalf in Court, an attorney may be able to help you recover the damages that you are owed due to the discrimination you faced at work. The amount and types of damages you can recover in a California employment case depend on the facts of the case. Generally, the damages you may recover revolve around the economic and non-economic impact that your employers’ actions had on you. Economic damages refer to the financial impacts of your employers’ actions. The most common economic damages include lost wages and employee benefits, back pay, liquidated damages, and attorney fees. Non-economic damages attempt to quantify the emotional toll that your employers’ actions had on you. Non-monetary damages, such as emotional distress, have no set method of calculation.
How to Find and Choose the Right Attorney for your Case
Once you have made the difficult decision that you need to contact a lawyer for your racial discrimination case, the challenge becomes finding and choosing the right attorney to represent you. You may ask friends or trusted coworkers for attorney referrals, reference an attorney referral service such as the California Bar Association or the California Employment Law Association (CELA), or find local attorneys through a google search. When selecting an attorney, consider their reliability, experience, expertise, communication style, and fee structure.
Reach Out to An Attorney Today
Race discrimination disputes can be extremely complicated; working with an employment law race discrimination expert is essential when negotiating a conflict with your employer. If you are experiencing racial discrimination at work in Low Angeles, reach out to Avloni Law today. Navruz Avloni is an experienced racial discrimination lawyer with a proven track record of success representing clients throughout California. If you have questions about your employment situation, or are experiencing unlawful discrimination at work, please get in contact with us right away for a consultation. The employment law attorneys at Avloni Law are here to help.