Indianapolis Employment Law Blog

As an employee, you hope that workplace discrimination never comes into play. However, if it does, sitting back and hoping that everything works out is not the best approach.

There are many ways to deal with discrimination as an employee, with these tips critical to your long-term well-being:

• Tell your employer: Make it clear to your employer that you are the victim of discrimination. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page as to what happened and the resolution you expect.
• Keep evidence: Maybe you have a photo associated with the act of discrimination. Or maybe you have an email that proves what went wrong. Regardless of the type of evidence, collect it for future use.
• Review your employee handbook: This is where you will find your company's anti-discrimination policy. It should give you a clear idea of the steps to take.
• Contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): If you don't get satisfaction from your employer, this is the best way to take things to the next level.

Even with a variety of federal and state laws in place, workplace sexual harassment remains a major problem throughout the country.

If you're the victim of workplace sexual harassment, you shouldn't wait to take action. This includes the following:

• Speak your mind. This means one thing: letting the harasser know that you want them to stop at once. If you don't speak up, the person may begin to believe their behavior is acceptable.
• Read your employee handbook. It's here that you will find information on workplace sexual harassment, including the steps your employer wants you to take to report the behavior. Follow the guidelines down to every last detail.
• Keep records. You should take detailed notes regarding the instances of harassment, ranging from the time to the location to exactly what happened. If there is any sort of evidence, such as an email or photo, be sure to hold onto that as well.
• Report it to your employer. This goes along with reading your employee handbook. Report the harassment to your employer, ask them what comes next and follow up as necessary.
• Take legal action. If you're unable to work out a resolution through your employer, consider what you can do next. You may be able to seek remedies such as back pay, reinstatement if you lost your job and damages for emotional distress.

Several Amazon employees are accusing the retail giant of wrongful termination, denying workers’ compensation claims and placing them back in unsafe working conditions. The company now has over 140 fulfillment centers in the U.S., and the founder, Jeff Bezos, is the wealthiest person in history. According to The Guardian, his net worth is now over $150 billion.

Claudia Ponce de Leon wanted to do the right thing. When she saw something that wasn't ethical-three bankers under her supervision were opening fake bank accounts to meet sales goals-she called the bank's ethics hotline. What happened next is enough to get almost anyone angry.

Three weeks after her report, Ponce de Leon was terminated from her position. Feeling she was wrongfully terminated, she brought her complaint to the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The bank defended their action stating she had a documented history of excessive drinking and other inappropriate behavior. Ponce de Leon denied this.