Los Angeles Nationality Discrimination Lawyer

Diversity has long been one of the strengths of the California workforce. When different people come together with a common cause or for a common goal, everyone benefits. Unfortunately, not all employers in the Golden State share that view. Instead, they look for ways to directly or indirectly limit or eliminate workforce diversity.

Employers use a number of approaches to fulfill this unscrupulous goal, and the experienced team at Litigation, P.C., has seen them all before. Our Los Angeles nationality discrimination lawyer has upheld the rights of workers like you for many years, obtaining millions of dollars of compensation in the process. Since we put all our experience to work for you, we are usually able to obtain favorable out-of-court settlements in employment bias matters.

Disparate Impact National Origin Discrimination

Anyone who has ever dealt with job discrimination before knows that job bias does not always have a malicious aspect. In fact, discrimination is often innocent or unintentional. But it is still illegal. Lawyers refer to such discrimination as disparate impact discrimination. Some policies unfairly target people in a protected class, such as:

• National origin,
• Ethnicity,
• Religion,
• Gender,
• Age,
• Disability, or
• Sexual orientation.

The Supreme Court recently expanded the sexual orientation protected class, which was included in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to include most people who are anywhere on the LGBTQ spectrum.

An English-only policy is perhaps the most common example of disparate impact national origin discrimination. Technically, these policies do not target people who were born or raised outside of the United States. But such a policy disproportionately affects such workers, especially if their English proficiency is limited.

Policy terms vary, but generally, these edicts require all workers to speak only English on the job. Frequently, these policies cite morale or another rather subjective foundation. Usually, such policies are only legal if the employee is in a customer-facing role and is either interfacing with a customer or a customer is within earshot.

Damages in such discrimination claims usually include lost wages and other related costs, such as job search or relocation expenses. A reasonable amount of front pay might be available as well.

Disparate Treatment Bias

Frequently, disparate impact discrimination is indirect and unintentional. Some employers have English-only policies because they do not think through all the possible implications of this policy. In contrast, disparate treatment discrimination is usually direct and intentional.

Unequal discipline is probably the most common disparate treatment example. Many employers put workers who have non-American heritage on a very short leash. Frequently, they believe that since California is an at-will employment state, they can use almost any excuse to terminate these employees. So, issues like minor absenteeism or a less-than-perfect performance review become a pretext for dismissal.

Because of the intentional nature of such discrimination, additional punitive damages are often available in disparate treatment claims.

To obtain this compensation, a plaintiff must first establish membership in a protected class, which in this case is national origin, and adverse action. That action is usually a refusal to hire or a termination. But it could also be a non-entry or exit level event, such as reassignment or demotion.

Employers can only derail the claim if they show a non-discriminatory reason for the adverse action which was not a pretext for illegal activity.

Count on a Tough-Minded Los Angeles Employment Attorney

The law guarantees equal opportunity for everyone. For a confidential consultation with an experienced Los Angeles nationality discrimination lawyer, contact Litigation, P.C., at 424-284-2401 or online to learn about your legal options. We routinely handle matters throughout SoCal.