WORKPLACE HARASSMENT

California's Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibits an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or job training program, from allowing harassment, or failing to prevent harassment, of an employee, job applicant, unpaid intern, or services contractor, on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender (including identity/expression), sexual orientation, age (40+), or military/veteran status.  The employer, organization, agency, or program may be held responsible for such harassment, even if by other than management or a supervisor, if it knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action.  Liability also can result from failing to take adequate reasonable steps to prevent such harassment from happening in the first place.

Depending upon the case, potential remedies for proven harassment may include award of lost wages, emotional distress damages, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages.

More information about workplace civil rights is available from the California State Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).  And although an administrative complaint may be filed directly with DFEH, the potential filer may benefit from first retaining  private legal representation, such as through California Employment Justice Center, to provide strategic legal counsel from the very beginning of the case.  Either way, a potential victim should waste no time in securing legal assistance, because access to justice could be lost if any applicable case filing deadlines were missed.