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Employee Discrimination and Harassment


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Employee Discrimination and Harassment

San Francisco Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Lawyers

Despite progress in civil rights, employment discrimination and sexual harassment still occur too frequently in today’s society. The Dolan Law Firm’s attorneys have successfully represented hundreds of clients bringing in millions of dollars in recovery for our clients who have been discriminated against and/or harassed.

Our attorneys help clients with all kinds of employment discrimination and harassment matters, including those resulting in wrongful termination. We handle cases involving issues of:

Our San Francisco discrimination and sexual harassment lawyers have successfully sued the largest Fortune 500 companies, as well as state, city and county governments, throughout San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland, The Silicon Valley, San Mateo, Marin and Contra Costa County. We have also taken on smaller organizations that have allowed the laws to be broken.

Chris Dolan recently received the highest recorded verdict in California and U.S. History for race discrimination receiving a $60,000,000.00 verdict against FedEX Ground for two Arab americans who were harassed on the job. This historic verdicrt shows the dedication of The Dolan Law Firm to protect the rights of all workers against unlawful treatment.

The Dolan law firm has handled many diifferent discirmination and harassment cases cases including age discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, failure to provide medical leave, racial harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination, and gay/sexual orientation discrimination recovering over $70,000,000.00 in verdicts and settlements for its clients in these areas. The number of cases we have handled are too numerous to list in full, but some examples are:

  • The Dolan Law Firm recently secured a $750,000.00 settlement on behalf of one man who was denied employment because he was a disfigured amputee.
  • Another case of disability discrimination involved a one handed construction worker who recovered over $540,000.00 in damages and fees when she was harassed and then later denied employment because of her dissability and a perception that she could not preform her job.
  • In another case, our discrimination lawyers won a $545,000.00 settlement on behalf of an individual against a major, national financial instituition, whose employer refused to give him time off to seek psychiatric care for severe depression.
  • Another case, against a construction equipment supplier, involved pregnancy discrimination where the Plaintiff, called a “fat cow” and told she was worthless because she was pregnant and could not work hard, resulted in a $650,000.00 settlement.
  • A client with AIDS who was denied housing unlawfully, led to The Dolan Law Firm recovering a $450,000.00 settlement.
  • A gay man, harassed on the job was awarded $235,000.00 in settlement for his termination based on his sexual orientation.
(Visit our verdicts and settlements page to read about other cases handled by Chris Dolan and his team of lawyers.)

If you have been discriminated or harassed you are entitled to damages under certain circumstances. Contact The Dolan Law Firm for a free case evaluation.

Discrimination Law

Discrimination and harassment are different legal concepts. Discrimination is the denial of employment, termination and / or alteration of the terms and conditions of employment (like wages, hours, bonuses, job assignments) based on a protected classification such as race, age, sex, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, transgenderism, and, in San Francisco, height and/or weight. This law is encoded in California Government Code Section 12940.

Discrimination can be direct or indirect, meaning it can be targeted at a single individual or a group of individuals. It is often shown by conduct and statements but can sometimes be demonstrated by statistics when a policy affects one class of people differently than others. Only employers / companies can be sued for discrimination, even if a supervisor or manager was the one that carried out the discrimination. For more information on discrimination, please visit our Discrimination FAQ.

Harassment Law

Harassment can take many forms. Harassment is unwanted conduct of an unlawful nature. The law allows someone who is harassed to sue the harasser as well as the company / employer. When a supervisor, manager or employer demands sex in return for a raise, continued employment, or promotion, this is called “quid pro quo sexual harassment.” If you've been a victim of this type of harassment, our San Francisco sexual harassment lawyers will defend your rights.

Other forms of harassment include unwanted touching, jokes, exposure to images, statements, and/or other behavior directed at an employee because of their sex, race, disability, age, gender orientation, or some other protected status. If the conduct arises to a level where it is considered severe and pervasive (meaning it is either so severe or so common) that it affects the ability of someone to do their job, this is called a “hostile environment.” Cases of this type often involve joking, pin-up photographs of naked men or women, Internet pornography, racial slurs, etc. For more information, please visit our sexual harassment FAQ.

Can a Company Be Sued For Harassment?

Companies are only liable for harassment that they know or should have known about. Under California law, an employer has an affirmative obligation to take all steps necessary to prevent harassment from occurring. Usually, this takes the form of an anti-discrimination and harassment policy and / or training. These are often contained in a company handbook or orientation packet. If an employer does not have a policy or program designed to prevent harassment, they may be held liable for failing to take steps to prevent harassment from occurring.

Companies function through employees, supervisors and managers. If an employee, not a supervisor, engages in harassment, the company must have actual knowledge of the harassment before it can be held liable for damages. Therefore, before liability can attach in a co-worker / co-worker situation, the conduct must be so open and obvious that the company should have known about it. Or, if the employee reported the conduct to a supervisor and it happened again, the company can be held liable for damages.

The reason for this rule is that the law wants to provide a business protection from conduct that it does not know of. It wants to provide a chance for the company to remedy the conduct. If the conduct is known to the company because it is obvious, or because of a complaint, the company must take prompt and sufficient remedial measures to try and stop further harassment from occurring. If nothing is done by the company, or too little is done, and the conduct happens again, the company is liable for the co-worker’s conduct.

If the harassing conduct is engaged in by a supervisor, foreperson, manager, owner, officer or director of the company the company is automatically liable for any unlawful harassment. That is because the company’s eyes and ears are its supervisors and managers. If they engage in unlawful conduct, it is presumed that the company knows about it.

What to Do

If you feel you're being harassed, the last thing you should do is nothing. No matter who is harassing or discriminating against you, a report should be made to Human Resources (HR), your supervisor, or a manager. Your company may have a reporting structure in place for complaints of discrimination and/or harassment. You should follow your company’s reporting requirements wherever possible. If the harasser is the one that your company’s policy suggests that you report harassment to, you should report it to HR or the harasser’s supervisor. ANY REPORTS SHOULD BE IN WRITING and you should keep a copy of your complaint.

If conditions or treatment are so severe or physically dangerous that no reasonable person in similar circumstances could consider continuing to work in the environment any further, then you may quit and seek damages for lost wages. This is called a “constructive termination.” However, case law recognizes that employees can’t merely quit and sue after a simple incident of harassment. Employees are expected to use any available reporting mechanism to attempt to resolve their employment issues. If that fails, and the treatment continues, an employee may quit and seek compensation for their lost wages.

YOU HAVE A LIMITED TIME PERIOD IN WHICH TO BRING A CLAIM OF DISCRIMINATION OR SEXUAL HARASSMENT. IN MOST SITUATIONS, YOU HAVE ONLY ONE YEAR TO FILE A CLAIM WITH THE PROPER AUTHORITIES. YOU MUST FILE A CLAIM BEFORE YOU CAN FILE SUIT. Contact the sexual harassment attorneys of the Dolan Law Firm for a free case evaluation and assistance in filing your claim.

An individual who has suffered unlawful conduct, inc California, in violation of their rights under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (such as discrimination and or harassment based on membership in a protected classification) must file a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), generally within one year of the conduct (there are limited exceptions in some cases) or they may lose their right to pursue legal action for this conduct. Information on, and forms provided by, the DFEH and its complaint process can be found at http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/complaint.asp.

 

From our offices in San Francisco, our discrimination and harassment lawyers represent clients throughout the California Bay Area, including Oakland, San Jose, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, Hayward, Richmond, Marin, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Fremont, Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Marin County, Contra Costa County, and San Mateo County.

The Dolan Law Firm
1438 Market Street
San Francisco, California 94102

Phone: 415.421.2800
Toll Free: 888.424.5352
Fax: 415.421.2830
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San Francisco Discrimination and Harassment Lawyers

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