How to Prepare a Strong Discrimination Claim Against Your Employer

3 Key Takeaways

  1. Workplace discrimination is illegal under both federal and New York State law, and you have protected rights whether you’re currently employed, job hunting, or have already been let go.

  2. Documentation is your most powerful tool: The earlier you start keeping records, the stronger your case will be.

  3. Time limits for filing a discrimination claim are real and strict, speaking with an employment attorney as soon as possible can make all the difference.

What you should do if you think you’re facing discrimination at work

If something feels wrong at work, if you’re being treated differently, passed over, or pushed out based on who you are, you don’t have to just accept it. Workplace discrimination is illegal, and you have real options. This guide walks you through exactly what to do to protect yourself and build the strongest case possible.

Know your rights: Who is protected and from what

Under federal and New York State law, employees and job applicants are protected from discrimination based on specific “protected characteristics.” These include:

  • Race, color, and national origin
  • Sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity
  • Pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions
  • Religion
  • Age
  • Disability
  • Genetic information

One important note on age: The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protects workers who are 40 or older. But in New York, the protection is broader; New York State’s age discrimination law covers workers 18 and older.

These protections apply across nearly every aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, promotions, job assignments, training, and other terms and conditions of work. You are also protected from retaliation if you report discrimination or cooperate with a discrimination investigation.

Start documenting right away

If you believe you’re experiencing discrimination, documentation is your most important tool, and the sooner you start, the better. Here’s what to keep track of:

  • Emails, texts, memos, or any written communications related to the incidents
  • Detailed notes about verbal conversations: dates, times, locations, exactly what was said, and who else was present
  • Any performance reviews, commendations, or records that demonstrate you were meeting or exceeding expectations
  • A running log of each discriminatory incident as it happens, with as much detail as possible

Keep in mind that recording laws and company policies vary by state, so be mindful of what’s permitted where you are. When in doubt, stick to documenting your own observations and communications you’re already a part of.

Report it — in writing

Once you’ve started documenting, report the discrimination through your company’s official channels — whether that’s your supervisor, Human Resources (HR) department, or an ethics or compliance hotline. The key here is to do it in writing, even if the company’s process allows for verbal reporting. A written report creates a paper trail and establishes that your employer was notified.

Hold on to copies of everything you submit and any responses you receive. If the behavior continues after you’ve reported it — or if you face any pushback or retaliation for speaking up — document that too.

Understand the filing deadlines

This is one area where many people run into trouble without realizing it: There are strict time limits for filing a workplace discrimination claim. Under federal law, you generally have 180 to 300 days from the discriminatory act to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). New York State has its own deadlines as well.

The EEOC’s filing process outlines your options step by step. Missing these windows can affect your ability to pursue a legal claim, which is why it’s so important to act quickly and not wait to see if things improve on their own.

Talk to an employment attorney

You don’t have to figure this out alone, and honestly, you shouldn’t try to. An employment attorney can review your situation, tell you which laws apply, help you avoid common missteps, and make sure you meet all the necessary deadlines. Even a single consultation early on can give you a much clearer picture of where you stand and what your options are.

This is especially important if your employer is already taking steps against you — like putting you on a performance improvement plan, reducing your hours, or creating conditions that make your job harder. These can sometimes be signs of retaliation, and a lawyer can help you recognize and respond to them.

Take care of yourself, too

Dealing with discrimination at work is genuinely hard. It can affect your confidence, your focus, and your sense of security. Lean on the people you trust, whether that’s friends, family, or a mental health professional. Taking care of yourself through this process isn’t a distraction from your case, it’s part of getting through it.

You have more support than you might think

Workplace discrimination can feel isolating, but the law is on your side — and so are the people at Valli Kane & Vagnini. If you believe you’re being discriminated against at work, reach out to our team at VKV. We’ll listen, walk you through your rights, and help you decide on the best path forward.

Workplace Discrimination? Get that Complaint Filed!

3 Key Takeaways

  1. Federal law protects employees from many forms of workplace discrimination — and most states add even more protections on top of that.

  2. There are strict deadlines for filing a complaint. Missing them can cost you your right to take action, even if your case is strong.

  3. You don't have to have all the answers before reaching out. Getting informed early can make all the difference.

You have more protection than you might think

If you've experienced harassment or discrimination at work, you should know that the law is on your side, and has been for decades. Federal law protects employees from a wide range of mistreatment on the job, and understanding those protections is the first step toward knowing what your options are.

What the law actually covers

The foundation of workplace discrimination law in this country is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Before it was passed, some federal protections existed, particularly around race and national origin, but Title VII significantly expanded those rights. Today, it protects employees from discrimination and harassment based on:

Race

Sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity)

National origin

Religion

Age

Disability

Any employer with 15 or more employees is subject to Title VII, and because it's a federal law, it applies the same way in every state.

The role of the EEOC

Title VII also established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency responsible for receiving and investigating workplace discrimination complaints. If you want to bring a discrimination claim in federal court, you're generally required to go through the EEOC's process first. Think of it as a necessary first step before anything can move forward legally. You can learn more or start a complaint directly through the EEOC's website.

The deadlines you really need to know

This is where a lot of people get tripped up, so pay close attention. Under Title VII, you typically have 180 calendar days from the date of discrimination to file a complaint with the EEOC. However, if your state has its own workplace discrimination law, which most do, including New York, that window extends to 300 days.

A handful of states, like New Mexico and Georgia, don't have their own statutes, which means those employees are limited to the 180-day window.

Here's the part that matters most: The clock starts ticking when the harm occurs. You can't wait two years to see how things play out and then file. If the deadline passes, your claim can be completely barred, even if what happened to you was serious and clearly wrong.

One important exception: Ongoing harassment

There's something called a "continuous violation" that many employees don't know about, and it can actually work in your favor. If you experienced repeated harassment over a period of time, say, months of unwanted comments or advances, the deadline doesn't start from the very first incident. It starts from the last occurrence. So if the harassment was ongoing, you may have more time than you think.

The best time to reach out is now

You don't need to have everything figured out before talking to someone. In fact, the earlier you get information, the better. Whether you eventually decide to take action or not, knowing where you stand, and how much time you have, can protect your options down the road.

If you think something at work hasn't felt right, contact us or visit the EEOC's resource page to learn more. A quick conversation now could make a real difference later.

Employment Discrimination-Know Your Rights

Sometimes it’s a pattern of being passed over, treated differently, or pushed out. Other times it’s more direct. Either way, if something about how you’re being treated at work feels wrong, it’s worth understanding what the law actually protects — because the answer might surprise you.

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US appeals court adopts lower bar for proving workplace bias claims

By Daniel Wiessner/ Reuters

Aug 21 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court has thrown out its unique decades-old precedent that made it more difficult for workers to prove discrimination claims.

The en banc 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday revived a lawsuit claiming Dallas County, Texas, required female jail guards, but not men, to work at least one day each weekend, overruling its longstanding precedent that federal anti-discrimination law only prohibits bias in “ultimate employment decisions” such as hiring, promotions and setting pay.

That precedent imposed a more strict standard than Title VII of the Civil Rights of Act 1964 itself, which applies to any “terms, conditions, or privileges of employment,” the New Orleans-based court said.

“It is no wonder … that no other court of appeals applies so narrow a concept,” Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote for the 5th Circuit.

Jay Ellwanger, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the ruling makes clear that Title VII prohibits all workplace discrimination.

Read the full article from Reuters here.

Female Delta Pilot Advances Sexual Harassment, Reprisal Claims

By Patrick Dorrian/ Bloomberg Law

Delta Air Lines Inc. must face a female pilot’s claims of workplace sexual harassment and that she was retaliated against for complaining about gender bias and harassment, including by being forced to undergo retreatment for alcohol abuse.

The ruling by the US District Court for the District of Minnesota rejected Delta’s contention that the retreatment requirement and other job actions cited by the pilot weren’t adverse for purposes of proving job retaliation, but instead were “beneficial opportunities” permitted by its collective bargaining agreement with her union. Binding case law “indicates otherwise,” the court said.

According to Andrea Ratfield, Delta’s adverse employment actions also included threatening her with termination and suspension, and manipulating her use of leave so it could demote her from captain to first officer. She started drinking to deal with trauma stemming from an incident in which she was raped while attending an aviation event in September 2017, which she reported to her supervisor, Ratfield says.

Ratfield says the sexual harassment she’s experienced in her Delta tenure includes being groped, her training manager asking her on a date, a supervisor calling her “princess,” and lewd hand gestures and comments. A supervisor also allegedly bragged to others that he had seen Ratfield’s breasts while she was breastfeeding, Judge Katherine Menendez said.

Those allegations sufficiently state a hostile work environment claim under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the judge said. The alleged acts of harassment may be “of the type brushed off by courts in different eras,” but they “comprise the sort of workplace behavior today that reasonable people” likely wouldn’t tolerate, Menendez said.

At least two of the incidents alleged by Ratfield occurred within the time period for suing, the court said.

Her retaliation claims are plausible in light of the alleged close timing—two weeks—between when she reported unfair and discriminatory treatment and when Delta refused to accept secondary test results she received that contradicted an allegedly false positive test that triggered the retreatment requirement, Menendez said.

Ratfield also alleges the retreatment facility was told that she rubbed people at Delta the wrong way and that supervisors further tried to sabotage her retreatment and effort to regain her license to fly by sharing her false positive test with the facility, the judge said.

The court dismissed Ratfield’s gender discrimination claims, including her allegations that Delta accepted secondary test results from male pilots under similar circumstances, but not from her.

Those claims require Ratfield to prove she was qualified to be a pilot and thus implicate terms of her union CBA, Menendez said. They therefore are preempted by the Railway Labor Act. RLA preemption didn’t apply to Ratfield’s retaliation claims because they don’t require proof that Ratfield was qualified for her job, the judge said.

Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP, Nichols Kaster PLLP, and Ellwanger Law LLLP represent Ratfield. Dorsey & Whitney LLP represents Delta.

Read the full article from Bloomberg Law here.

Federal jury awards woman $25.1 million in sex discrimination case against Omni Hotels and Resorts

DALLAS — A former Omni Hotels employee gained a $25.1 million jury award for wage discrimination in Dallas federal court following an eight-year-long legal battle.

“It’s overwhelming. I feel I have a little bit of self-respect back. I feel that it’s healing and I can hold my head up a little high again,” Sarah Lindsley, 48, told WFAA following a federal district jury trial.

“I was just continually blocked along the way,” Lindsley said. “I was put down as a woman. I was disrespected as a woman, as being a single mother. I just put my head down, tried to work harder, tried to prove myself for years and years.”

Lindsley worked at Omni locations in Tucson, Arizona and Corpus Christi, Texas. Although she worked her way up from a server to one of just four female food & beverage directors among Omni’s fifty-plus properties, she claimed she was “paid less than men who had the same title and did the same work,” her suit said.

The lawsuit alleged that it was part of the “’boys club’ culture that permeated Omni’s Food & Beverage Division.”

“I had gone to HR countless times,” Lindsley recalled. “I had gone to my managers countless times, I tried to follow the chain of command the entire time I was there. Nothing was done, and I felt trapped as if I didn’t have a choice.”

The jury award is against Omni Hotels & Resorts and TRT Holdings, Inc.

In a statement, Omni Hotels and Resorts tells WFAA, “The proceedings remain ongoing and there is no judgment yet in this case. Accordingly, we are unable to comment on the specifics. However, we vigorously deny these claims and affirm that Omni Hotels & Resorts does not stand for discrimination in any way. We have every confidence that we will prevail as the judicial process plays out.”

“There were multiple times along the way where there were opportunities to resolve this case, opportunities for the parties to move on,” said Jay Ellwanger, Lindsley’s attorney at Ellwanger Henderson. “And time and time and time again, Omni just wasn’t interested and they didn’t want to talk, and they just wanted to try to prove a point through continuing to litigate with us.”

“And having a client that, like Ms. Lindsley, (who) was willing to persevere for eight years through all of those ups and downs,” Ellwanger said. “It’s really a unique situation and I think it speaks to how brave she is.”

Read more from WFAA here.

Bovitz v. Wells Fargo – A Discrimination Lawsuit

{Read in 2:30 minutes}  Bovitz v. Wells Fargo - A Discrimination Lawsuit by Monica HinckenImagine dedicating almost 35 years to the financial industry. You work hard. You are successful. You build an impressive book of business. And yet, you are continuously hindered from reaching your potential – not because you are not qualified, because you are; not because you do not have the necessary experience, because you do.  You are passed over because you are an older woman. Our client, Judith A. Bovitz, who is 69 years old, has been experiencing this for years. After every step taken to remedy the situation internally failed, she filed a Federal Lawsuit last month against Wells Fargo Advisors (“Wells Fargo” or the “Company”).Continue reading

Employer Discrimination by Disparate Impact

Employer Discrimination by Disparate Impact by Robert J. Valli
{Read in 3:30 minutes}  In my last article, I discussed a pattern of discrimination in terms of the disparate impact on African Americans. But what does “disparate impact” mean?  In 1971 the Supreme Court adopted the position of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). In Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), the Court invalidated an employer’s requirement that applicants have a high school diploma and/or pass aptitude tests for hire and transfer into more desirable departments where prior to the enactment of Title VII the company had restricted blacks to labor positions. Specifically, the Court stated:

The Act proscribes not only overt discrimination, but also practices that are fair in form but discriminatory in operation. The touchstone is business necessity. If an employment practice which operates to exclude [blacks] cannot be shown to be related to job performance, the practice is prohibited . . . Congress directed the thrust of the Act to the consequences of employment practices, not simply the motivation.Continue reading

Fire Department Discrimination Against African American Non-Firefighter Employees

Fire Department Discrimination Against African American Non-Firefighter Employees by James Vagnini{Read in 2:30 minutes} The New York City Fire Department is filled with extremely brave men and women, some out in the field and many behind the scenes. While there is certainly a long and illustrious history of dedication and incredible courage, unfortunately over the years there have also been repeated allegations of racial discrimination. As recently as 2014, the city agreed to pay $98 million to settle what is known as the “Vulcan” case to address allegations of racial bias against New York City Firefighters.  Now, in a federal lawsuit, our firm, Valli Kane & Vagnini LLP and Washington D.C. based Mehri & Skalet filed on behalf of civilian workers of the FDNY and a federal judge ruled that the case can move forward.Continue reading