Employment discrimination rarely announces itself. It hides in words like “cultural fit” or disguises itself in negative performance reviews. Yet, despite laws to the contrary, employment discrimination is more common than many people realize. It can affect your career, your well-being, and your sense of security. Fortunately, federal and Connecticut laws prohibit employment discrimination and retaliation against employees who take action to confront it.

Learning to recognize patterns of discrimination, document them carefully, and report them through the correct legal channels can mean the difference between a strong legal claim and one that slips away.

What Is Employment Discrimination?

Employment discrimination occurs when someone is treated differently because of characteristics that are protected by law, including an individual’s age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, religion, disability, pregnancy, military service, or genetic information.

In addition to discriminating against individuals in protected classes, it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against employees who engage in protected activities like filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), discussing harassment with a manager or supervisor, or requesting reasonable accommodation for a disability or religious practice.

Examples of Employment Discrimination

Employment discrimination can take many forms, and they are not always what people expect. While a single act or comment might be overlooked, discriminatory comments combined with a denied promotion or a sudden negative performance review could be signs an employer is engaging in unlawful discrimination.

• Hiring and Recruitment. Discriminatory practices can start even before an applicant is hired. Job postings that indicate a preference for applicants from a certain group, interview questions that ask about pregnancy, ethnicity, religion, or national origin, or patterns of not advancing candidates from particular groups past the initial screening stage are all examples of employment discrimination.
• Disparities in Compensation. When differences in compensation fall along demographic lines like age, race, gender, etc., an employer might be engaging in unlawful employment discrimination.
• Promotion and Advancement. When equally or less-qualified individuals from certain demographic groups are consistently promoted over individuals from other demographic groups, an employer may be engaging in unlawful employment discrimination.
• Discipline and Termination. Discrimination in disciplinary and termination procedures can occur when individuals from one demographic group are treated differently from those in another group.
• Hostile Work Environment. Patterns of exclusion, demeaning comments, or being assigned tasks below a worker’s level can create a hostile work environment when they are tied to protected characteristics.
• Retaliation. Employees who complain internally or to a government agency about discrimination and then face negative performance reviews, reassignment, or termination may have experienced employment discrimination.
• Disparate Impact. Seemingly neutral policies can be illegal if they disproportionately exclude or harm members of a protected group when those policies are not justified by a genuine business necessity.
• Reasonable Accommodation. Employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities or sincerely held beliefs. Failure to make these accommodations can constitute employment discrimination, even in the absence of hostile intent.

Reporting Employment Discrimination

In Connecticut, filing an administrative action is usually a prerequisite to filing an employment discrimination lawsuit. Before pursuing a claim for employment discrimination, an individual must first address their administrative options by filing a complaint with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) or the EEOC. Connecticut operates as a “deferral state,” meaning the EEOC will defer to the CHRO in investigating employment discrimination claims and both entities can collaborate in processing discrimination claims filed in Connecticut.

Individuals can file a claim for employment discrimination with the EEOC and the CHRO, or file with one agency and request a “cross-filing” with the other agency. Cross-filing ensures both agencies document the claim. After filing an administrative action, individuals can pursue their claim through the CHRO, obtain a release from the CHRO to file a private claim in Connecticut Superior Court, or obtain a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC to file a lawsuit in Federal District Court.

There are some laws prohibiting employment discrimination which do allow claims to be filed directly in court, or with other agencies such as the Connecticut Department of Labor. Since this is a complicated area of the law, it is important to obtain legal advice as soon as possible from an experienced employment attorney that is specific to your particular situation in order to ensure that the proper claims are filed, in the correct forum, and before any filing deadlines expire.

How the Connecticut Employment Discrimination Lawyers at Madsen, Prestley & Parenteau, LLC Can Help

If you experienced employment discrimination, understanding your rights, your options, and the steps you can take to protect yourself is essential. But you must act quickly before any statute of limitations deadlines expire. The employment discrimination attorneys at Madsen, Prestley & Parenteau, LLC, can evaluate your situation, explain your rights, and guide you through the complex process of filing an employment discrimination complaint. To learn how the employment discrimination lawyers at Madsen, Prestley & Parenteau, LLC, can assist you, contact us online or call 860-246-2466 to schedule a confidential consultation at our Hartford or New London office.