Retaliation

What Is Workplace Retaliation?

Retaliation is defined as returning like for like; especially, to get revenge.  What goes around comes around.  Payback time.

Retaliation occurs when an employer, employment agency or labor organization illegally strikes back at or seeks revenge against an employee or applicant who has complained of discrimination or some other allegedly unlawful act.

The EEOC, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says "In Fiscal Year 2007, EEOC received 26,663 charges of retaliation discrimination based on all statutes enforced by EEOC. The EEOC resolved 22,265 retaliation charges in 2007, and recovered more than $124 million in monetary benefits for charging parties and other aggrieved individuals (not including monetary benefits obtained through litigation)."

Click the link in that paragraph and read the page.  It's not that long.  Then go back and read it again.  If you have to, read it out loud so it sinks in.  It's THAT important.

The EEOC protects workers against workplace discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability even if YOU were NOT the person discriminated against.  You are protected if you are or have been involved in proceedings related to discrimination or have a family member who is.  Even a co-worker - if you see that Mary is being sexually harassed in the break room and you bring it up to your boss because Mary is too embarrassed to say anything about it, you're protected, too, and can't be retaliated against.

The EEOC also protects employees from unfair compensation, that is, wage differences between men and women performing substantially equal work.

There are additional laws to protect whistle-blowers from retaliation, that is, employees who rat on their employers for an illegal activity, but they are not covered by the EEOC.  You can find more information on the U.S. Department of Labor site.

Also, the laws vary from state to state, but an employee can't be retaliated against for filing a workers' compensation or unemployment claim. In summary, these various groups of people being protected by law are called "protected classes".  If you are a member of a protected class, you cannot be legally retaliated against.  And THAT'S where it gets interesting. 

Protect yourself from retaliation on the job or find out what you can do if you've been the victim of workplace retaliation.