Discrimination against employees due to protected characteristics like race, religion, gender, age and others included in federal and/or state law is prohibited. As Missouri’s Department of Labor’s (DOL) website explains, that includes harassing, demoting and firing someone as well as retaliating against them for “filing a charge of discrimination, participating in a discrimination proceeding, or otherwise opposing discrimination.”
Sadly, because so many employers continue to discriminate against employees simply because of who they are, employees sometimes have to speak up and call attention to the discrimination. That often means going to the Human Resources professionals with the company at issue, to someone in charge or maybe (if their boss is the one discriminating) trying to convince them that what they’re doing is wrong and asserting their rights.
Unfortunately, this can sometimes exacerbate the situation. Say that an HR manager informs another department manager that their employee has reported discriminatory behavior. Instead of doing the smart thing and changing their behavior, they might make things worse for them – perhaps cutting them out of important meetings, giving them an inconvenient shift or even enlisting the help of others in the department to make their work life so miserable that they’ll leave on their own. That’s retaliation, and it’s illegal.
Recognizing retaliation and understanding why it occurs
An activity generally qualifies as opposition to a practice believed to be unlawful discrimination if it is an adverse response to a legally-protected activity. This includes everything from reporting discrimination to participating in a discrimination investigation (whether it involves yourself or someone else) to refusing an order that’s discriminatory.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has studied when managers are more likely to retaliate against an employee who has reported discrimination. These include situations where they see the report of discrimination as an offense against them. Further, they don’t believe they’ve done anything wrong or, if so, that it was justified. According to the EEOC, for some managers, “retaliation is a coping mechanism — a way of alleviating the psychological discomfort associated with perceived injustice.”
Employees should be able to report discrimination they experience – and support others who are suffering discrimination – without fear of retaliation. Having experienced legal guidance can help employees understand and effectively protect and assert their rights.
