Wrongful Retaliation Claims Top EEOC Charges List
More claims related to wrongful retaliation in the workplace were filed with the federal administration last year, than any other types of claims. In fact, even as the number of discrimination-related claims against employers in the United States drops, the number of wrongful retaliation claims is actually on the increase.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently released data which indicated evidence of this disturbing trend. The data found that 42.8% of the complaints that it received were related to wrongful retaliation. The second most frequent charges were those related to race discrimination, with 35% of the complaints.
Apart from these two, the other most common charges received by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were those related to pregnancy and sexual harassment, accounting for 29.3%, disability discrimination accounting for 28.6%, age discrimination accounting for 23.2%, national origin discrimination accounting for 10.8%, and religion-based discrimination accounting for 4%. Apart from these, color-based discrimination accounted for 3.1% for the discrimination-related claims, while discrimination based on violations of the Equal Pay Act, accounted for 1.1% of the discrimination claims.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also admitted that the number of charges filed with the agency actually dropped compared to the recent past.
An employer may decide to retaliate against any employee who files a complaint against him or takes any other kind of legal action against the employer. Such wrongful retaliation can take the form of harassing the employee in the workplace, making it difficult for employees to continue to work, and ultimately forcing the employee to resign. In extreme cases, the employee may also be fired for no valid reason.
If you have recently been terminated from your job or have faced other kinds of harassment and retaliation, speak with a California employment lawyer, and discuss your legal options.
