San Jose Employment Discrimination Lawyers

What kinds of cases do your San Jose employment lawyers take?

McNicholas & McNicholas represents police officers, firefighters, and first responders whose jobs are adversely affected by discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

We also represent emergency workers who have whistleblower claims, workers’ compensation claims, Family Medical Leave Act claims, executive compensation claims, and wage and hour disputes.

Discrimination

Discrimination in the workplace of a police officer or sheriff’s deputy, firefighter, or first responder generally involves:

• An adverse employment decision. This can include:
  • Hiring
  • Compensation
  • Job assignments and classifications
  • Transfers and promotions
  • Recruitment
  • Testing
  • Use of employer facilities
  • Training
  • Retirement plans, benefits, and leave
• The adverse decision is based on a protected class designation (as defined by the appropriate federal or state law) such as:
  • Race, skin color, or national origin
  • Gender, sexual orientation, or gender expression
  • Disability
  • Age (generally 40 or older)
  • Pregnancy
  • Military or veteran status
  • Religion
  • Genetic information
  • Weight

Examples of employment discrimination include:

• Preferring a job candidate with specific identity characteristics
• Refusing to hire or give workplace assignments to an officer, firefighter, or first responder based on their race
• Not providing reasonable workplace accommodations for disabled workers
• Not providing pregnant women with less strenuous job tasks
• Firing a worker who supported another worker’s discrimination claim

Harassment

Workplace harassment, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC), is unwelcome conduct based on a protected class. The conduct becomes illegal when:

• “Enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment” or
• “The conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.”

The EEOC goes on to note:

Anti-discrimination laws also prohibit harassment against individuals in retaliation for filing a discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or lawsuit under these laws; or opposing employment practices that they reasonably believe discriminate against individuals, in violation of these laws.

Harassment includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment involves quid pro quo harassment (conditioning job benefits on sexual favors) and harassment based on the creation of a hostile work environment (tolerating sexual discussions, images, threats, and other conduct becomes a part of your job).

Examples of offensive conduct may include slurs, epithets, offensive jokes, physical assaults or threats, ridicule, displaying offensive pictures, and interfering with a worker’s ability to do their job. The victim can include someone who is offended by the conduct but isn’t the target of the harassment. The harasser can be a supervisor, co-worker, or even a non-employee.

Retaliation

At McNicholas & McNicholas LLP, our San Jose employment attorneys file claims against the City if they seek to adversely affect the employment status or opportunity of an emergency worker for:

• Asserting their own discrimination or harassment claim
• Assisting another worker in their discrimination or harassment claim
• Filing a whistleblower claim
• Filing a workers’ compensation claim
• Filing a claim for family medical leave
• Asserting any other legal right