Pre-Paid Legal Advice:

Employment law, wrongful discharge, racial discrimination, sexual harassment

By Welch, Gold & Siegel – Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., Pennsylvania

Employment law protects employees from mistreatment by their employers.

Prior to these established laws, employers could do whatever they wanted without recourse. Employees were at the mercy of their employers and usually went along because there were mouths to feed and bills to pay.

Today, often illegal immigrants hungrily accept work where employers lack standards for cleanliness, appropriate training, and general safety. It's still a problem but it shouldn't be.

As an employee, you have the right to work in an environment that is free from hazards; where you are not discriminated against based on race, gender, religion, disability, or veteran status; where your employer contributes to workers compensation and social security so in the event of an injury employees will be covered; where employees are not sexually harassed; and where you accrue sick days, vacation days, and allowed specified breaks after working a standard amount of hours.

Here are some areas of employment law where a Pennsylvania law firm might be of service to you:

 

Wrongfully discharged

Many states including Pennsylvania have what is known as at-will hiring. This means that private sector employees can be hired and fired for any or no reason at all.

Yet, there are instances when at-will hiring and firing supersedes by wrongful discharge.

• Your firing could be considered a wrongful discharge if your boss told you to commit a crime or fudge a bit on the bookkeeping and you refused to do so.
• Your firing could be considered a wrongful discharge if you fulfilled your public duty by serving on a jury and your boss didn't want you to go.
• If you're a bartender or waiter/waitress, your firing could be considered a wrongful discharge if your boss insisted that you serve alcohol to an intoxicated customer and you refused.
• Your firing would be considered a wrongful discharge if you threatened to or actually reported safety violations to OSHA.
• Your firing would be considered wrongful discharge if you were on workers compensation and fired because you could not return to work or because you filed an initial workers comp claim.

There are at least 30 reasons which could override at-will firing.

Find out if you were wrongfully discharged or your firing was within the at-will scope. Contact an employment lawyer now for your free, no-obligation consultation.

Racial discrimination

Have you been racially discriminated in job seeking, hiring, promotions, training, evaluations, salary, receiving benefits, and/or firing? Have you been the victim of a racially hostile work environment, racial slur, racial stereotyping, or distasteful jokes and insinuations?

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 deem it unlawful, in employment, to refuse to hire, discharge or otherwise discriminate in any term or condition of employment because of race, color, religion, ancestry, age (40 and above), sex, national origin, non-job-related disability, possession of a diploma based on passing a general education development test, willingness or refusal to participate in abortion or sterilization or to refuse to contract with certain independent contractors for the same reasons.

Have you been racially discriminated against in the workplace for new jobs, promotions, training, or firing? Contact an employment lawyer now for your free, no-obligation consultation.

Sexual harassment

Workplaces should be safe environments, free of threats and fear and uncomfortable situations. Victims who are sexually harassed cannot perform optimal job duties. 

According to the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sexual harassment is "unwelcome sexual advancements, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature…when… submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions… or such conduct has the purpose or effect of… creating intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment."

Reporting unwelcome and intimidating behavior to a supervisor who does nothing to investigate or stop it sets a bad example for perpetrating sexual harassment. That's why solid employee and management training practices are so important.

Sexual harassment reaches across gender. If you have been the victim of sexual harassment at work, please contact a Pennsylvania employment law attorney to find out how we can help you.