Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

You have a family to support, a mortgage and bills to pay. The depressed economy makes it vital that your stream of income remain stable. You like your job but you feel harassed, discriminated, and intimidated. Your work place has become a hostile environment. You feel the pressure day in and day out. Your boss is always threatening you, daring you to resign, making unfounded accusations against you. You want to leave but the thought of being unemployed is too scary. You think of your family. What happens to them if you lose job?

Federal and State laws prohibit discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, age, disability and medical condition, gender and sexual orientation. Race discrimination is as prevalent now as it was fifty years ago, during the civil rights movement. The only difference is that it may be harder to sue your employer because they know how to find loopholes within the law. Years of race discrimination litigation have taught employers how to cover their tracks to avoid nasty lawsuits. The really big employers have legal experts also known as "hired guns" on their payroll to insure that any impending legal action is subverted.

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is the law that prohibits race discrimination. In California, an employer has an affirmative and mandatory duty to promptly investigate claims of harassment and discrimination. To succeed in a discrimination case, the employee must show hard evidence that the boss intended to discriminate. This is often difficult because it is very rare that someone will be able to produce solid evidence of discrimination. An eyewitness who can testify that the employer intended to discriminate will boost a claim of discrimination. However in some cases derogatory ethnic comments that were part of a causal conversation were not enough to establish national origin discrimination. If the boss has a rule that prohibits employees from speaking their primary language, or the language they are comfortable speaking at all times in the work place, this may be actionable.

In many discrimination actions, the employer will defend by showing some legitimate, non-discriminatory business reason for its actions. If a boss had a good faith belief that the employee engaged in misconduct, this may be sufficient business reason. An employer can claim that it had to fire employees to reduce the workforce for economic reasons and this maybe a sufficient defense.

In a case against Northwest Airlines in 1996, the Court ruled that employers must try to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious creed unless it would cause an undue hardship. If your boss starts prohibiting you from doing the rosary during your break time, you may want to see an attorney.

On age discrimination, California law states "It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to hire or employ, or to discharge, dismiss, reduce, suspend, or demote, any individual over the age of 40 on the ground of age, except in such cases where the law compels or provides for such action." Again, in age discrimination cases, an employee must prove some intent to discriminate on the part of the boss. Your age must have been a "motivating factor" in your boss’ decision.