Riverside Racial Discrimination Lawyers
Protecting Workers from Racial Discrimination Throughout Southern California
If you work in California, you are guaranteed protection against discrimination in the workplace. Despite California’s supposedly progressive laws and culture, racial discrimination is still very prevalent in California workplaces. If you have been fired, rejected for a job, subjected to harassment or other discriminatory conduct in the workplace, the seasoned workers’ rights attorneys at Ochoa & Calderon are here to help you get the compensation you are owed and the justice you deserve.
California & Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws
California employees are protected from racial discrimination in the workplace by both federal and state laws. Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits workplace discrimination based on a number of specified characteristics, including race, color, and national origin. Title VII prohibits discrimination concerning any term, condition, or privilege of employment, including recruiting, hiring, firing, promotions, transfers, compensation, benefits, and other aspects of employment. Title VII applies to private and public employers with 15 or more employees.
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits employment discrimination based on the same characteristics as Title VII plus others, including race, color, national origin, and ancestry, and applies to employers with five or more employees.
What Counts as Discriminatory Conduct?
A wide variety of conduct is covered under the federal and state anti-discrimination laws. These bans are not limited to firing an employee based on their race. The laws reach all stages of employment, including:
- Discriminatory advertisements for job
- Discrimination in the application, screening, or interview process
- Hiring, transferring, promoting, firing, or demoting employees based on race
- The conditions of working
- Discrimination in compensation, including salary, benefits, bonuses, and other forms of compensation
- Discrimination in opportunities to participate in training, union membership, employee organizations, or apprenticeship programs
Employment discrimination can manifest in a variety of forms. At Ochoa & Calderon, we have helped clients fight back against all manner of workplace discrimination, whatever the form. Discrimination may manifest as:
- A pattern of employees being denied advancement opportunities due to their race
- Refusing to hire employees based on race
- Conducting layoffs or force reductions that disproportionately affect workers of certain ethnicities
- Supervisors engaging in or permitting conduct creating a hostile work environment, such as:
- Using racial slurs
- Making racial jokes
- Making derogatory comments
- Subjecting certain employees to unpleasant working conditions
- Referencing offensive racial stereotypes
- Displaying racially offensive symbols or images
- Excluding certain employees from work outings
- Forcing employees to quit due to their race
- Requiring employees to adhere to certain dress or appearance requirements that discriminate based on race
- Using different hiring criteria, such as significantly different questionnaires or prerequisites, depending on the applicant’s race
- Transferring employees to less-desirable locations due to race
- Retaliating against an employee for:
- Complaining about racial discrimination
- Reporting discrimination to an outside agency
- Participating in a legal proceeding based on discrimination
If you have experienced any discriminatory or hostile behavior in your workplace, call a racial discrimination attorney at Ochoa & Calderon to discuss your situation. You should never feel unsafe or uncomfortable in your workplace, and you should never be punished because of who you are or how you look. Hold your employer to task and stop them from continuing their pattern of discrimination in the future with help from a veteran California workplace discrimination attorney.
Get Compensation and Justice After Workplace Discrimination
If you have experienced racial discrimination in your workplace or while applying for a job, you may have a number of legal remedies available to you. Depending on the circumstances, remedies available to California workers may include:
- Hiring and front pay
- Back pay, including wages and benefits
- Promotion
- Reinstatement to a position
- Transfer to a different location
- Cease-and-desist orders preventing future illegal conduct
- Legal costs including attorney fees
- Damages for pain and suffering or emotional distress
- Punitive damages
Workplace Discrimination Attorneys Serving Riverside and Southern California
If you have experienced discrimination in the workplace in violation of California state or federal law, reach out to Ochoa & Calderon for a free consultation. We take appropriate cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning we only charge a fee if we are successful on your behalf, and our fees come as a percentage of the amount we recover for you. You’ve got nothing to lose by calling now, but you could miss out on enforcing your legal rights if you wait too long. Call us at 951-901-4444 in Riverside or throughout Southern California at 844-401-0750. Our lawyers are ready to fight for you.
