Being an employee of any company comes with both responsibilities and benefits. There is a clear line between these two sides of the coin. Depending on the industry and job position, an employee will need to focus on a couple of different factors, like work hours, daily tasks, and discipline.
All of these will be taken into consideration when their overall performance is calculated by the managerial staff. At the same time, the rights every worker has consist of usual human rights and addition of work rights. Seeing to it that these are respected is a priority for the employer.
In all countries, these rights are protected by a particular law. In the state of California, the set of laws that protect these rights is known as California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act. Now, let’s discuss a couple of things you should be aware of when we’re talking about this one.
1. What Does It Protect?
Firstly, we would like to discuss what fields of rights this act protects. These are quite a lot of them, but we will focus on a couple of those we believe are the most important ones. For instance, it guarantees the rights of sexual and gender nature. We’re discussing the things like pregnancy, and childbirth.
The next factor is sexual orientation. Therefore, nobody’s position should be judged by a person’s sexual orientation, especially in business-related aspects. So, whenever someone experiences mistreatment like this, there’s the foundation for filing a claim.
When we say sexual orientation, we’re also talking about other categories like transgender identity. Besides that, problems related to a mental or physical disability should be a barrier for someone to become more successful in any particular field of work.
2. What is Considered a Disability?
We are talking about an act that points out two main categories of disability, physical and mental. Naturally, both of these concepts come with their strings of characteristics, for obvious reasons. It needs to be said that an employee who suffers from a certain medical condition should receive accommodation.
Naturally, these conditions mean that the business owner should understand all the circumstances during the hiring process. Interestingly, the Act states that an employer shouldn’t consider several things. For instance, if an employee is in a wheelchair, it is not perceived as a disability on the behalf of employers.
However, that doesn’t mean that a business owner doesn’t have a chance to ask for medical records that can provide a clear idea about the potential worker’s condition, in aim to provide all the accommodations that will enhance a person’s chances of being as productive as it wants to be.
3. Preventing the Discrimination
We’ve seen the most common rights this act protects. But the whole idea is to prevent any sort of discrimination that, sadly, happens from time to time, for a variety of reasons. Experiencing any sort of discrimination is not pleasant, but when it dictates the work position, it can endanger many more aspects.
Let’s say that someone is competent enough to be in a higher position, but suffers from a condition that causes some physical limitation. That particular person doesn’t have a possibility to improve their living conditions, through additional equipment that can make their life much easier.
So, you can see that this sort of discrimination can cause many more problems down the road, not just the ones that can be seen directly. That’s why we believe that the existence of this sort of activity is an absolute must. In case you experienced some sort of discrimination of this sort, look for an experienced attorney, like Bibiyan Law Group.
4. The Number of Cases
It needs to be said that this act wasn’t enforced as much in 2018 and 2019. It can be perceived from this perspective. At the same time, many experts stated that the number of cases simply wasn’t at that level during that period. Nevertheless, the number of these cases has risen in 2020 and 2024.
When we say the number of cases, we’re talking about the number of claims made by those who feel they have been discriminated against in any way. There’s one more factor we would like to point out. Some experts believe that this increased number of cases correlated with forms becoming more straightforward.
It’s because it consisted of a background check done on an employee. For example, the hiring process consisted of a criminal records check. So, having a criminal background could prevent someone from getting hired at a certain, which directly lowers the level of discrimination, according to the reports.
Filling a Claim
So, when someone experiences any discrimination that falls under this Act, building a strong case should be the priority both for an employee and their attorney. That way, it is possible to receive appropriate compensation. In most cases, compensation of this sort will be in the form of finances.
But, this is not always the case. It can happen that someone was fired as a result of discrimination, but the official statement from the company is that this person hasn’t been as good in terms of performance. When this happens, the compensation usually means that the employee will return to their job position.
Since it is required to hire an attorney to help with handling the case, filing a claim is done by submitting a lawsuit to a local court. Those who have this sort of experience know that these cases usually do not take too much time. However, it doesn’t mean that there are no exceptions to this, let’s say, rule.
The Bottom Line
Understanding your rights is something that we would describe as one of the most important things these days. That way, you can prevent many problems that can arise from time to time. In this article of ours, we’ve provided all the things you need to know about California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act. We are sure that this insight will provide you with a significant advantage.
