When an employer or supervisor requires an employee to engage in sex to keep their job or receive some job benefit like a raise or promotion, that’s quid pro quo harassment. California’s FEHA law (Fair Employment and Housing Act) prohibits quid pro harassment and permits the employee to sue both the employer and the harasser.
Disparate Impact
By Kristine Keala Meredith on
Posted in Employment
Sometimes an employer has some policy or practice that appears to be fair to everyone but, in the real world, has negative consequences for certain employees only. If the employees who suffer are members of a protected class, then the policy is said to have a disparate impact and it is illegal.
For example, if …
Hostile Work Environment
By Kristine Keala Meredith on
Posted in Employment
A hostile work environment is one in which the harassment has become so frequent or horrible that the victim’s working conditions are changed for the worse. For there to be a hostile work environment, the harassment has to be aimed at a protected class.
For example, if a supervisor at a tech company frequently makes …
Disparate Treatment
By Kristine Keala Meredith on
Posted in Employment
Disparate treatment means “different treatment.” Disparate treatment is illegal when it is aimed at an employee or independent contractor because of their membership in a protected class.
Most often, illegal disparate treatment results in an employee not getting a raise, being passed over for a promotion, being assigned an undesirable shift or job duties, or …