Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters, and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, and legal marketing and development.

Still, we, here at Miletti Law®, feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy, & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As the authoritative force in Employment Law, we are thrilled to continue creating content-filled videos that cover diverse areas of Labor Law to educate and deliver in a sense that only Miletti Law® can. In this regard, this blog introduces you to one of our videos titled “The Minimum Requirements To Bring a Discrimination Claim Against Your Employer.” By way of backdrop, we hope to provide you with a hands-on guide on the minimum requirements you would require to bring a discrimination claim against your employer.

Without further ado, let us get down to it.

For starters, it is crucial to understand that when bringing a discrimination claim against your employer, you must have the basic legal requirements in order to decide whether you have an actionable claim for employment-related discrimination or not. In this regard, you should consider several preliminary case-related questions at hand to bring such a claim against your employer. To begin with, once you allege that you were discriminated against, you should be specific about the kind of discrimination you suffered.

Question 1: What kind of discrimination or harassment did you suffer?

Note that “discrimination” needs to be more than something that is just a one-time incident/act classifiable as harassment under the employment law.

Accordingly, below are some of the most common types of DISCRIMINATORY ACTS reported are recognized in most states, including under the New York employment and labor law. If you suffered any of these, then have an actionable discrimination claim against your employer.

  • Refused to hire you
  • Gave you a disciplinary notice or negative performance review
  • Denied your request for an accommodation for your disability, or pregnancy-related condition
  • Sexual harassment
  • Fired you /laid you off
  • Suspended you
  • Denied you an accommodation for domestic violence
  • Harassed or intimidated you on any basis indicated above
  • Demoted you
  • Did not call you back after a lay-off
  • Denied you an accommodation for your religious practices
  • Denied you services or you treated differently
  • Denied you a promotion/ pay raise
  • Paid you a lower salary than other co-workers doing the same job
  • Denied you leave time or other benefits
  • Denied you a license by a licensing agency
  • Denied you training
  • Gave you different or worse job duties than other workers doing the same job
  • Discriminatory advertisement or inquiry or job application-and-
  • Something else that they did to you that is not included or mentioned in this list of acts/incidents.

Question 2: is the “discrimination” or “harassment” you suffered related to a “protected” class or category?

In the U.S., the federal law protects individuals from harassment and discrimination based on a set of nine protected classes, including (1) age, (2) color, (3) race, (4) creed, (5) sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), (6) disability, (7) national origin, (8) religion, and (9) genetic information. However, the New York employment and labor law recognizes a lot more categories than these, including:

  • Age (Over 40)
  • Alienage or citizenship status
  • Arrest Record
  • Military Status
  • Conviction Record
  • Domestic Violence Victim Status
  • Pregnancy-Related Condition
  • Use of Guide Dog, Hearing Dog, or Service Dog
  • Predisposing-Related Condition
  • Skin Color
  • Creed/ Religion
  • Disability or Perceived Disability
  • Family status
  • Gender Identity or Expression, including the Status of Being Transgender
  • Lawful occupation (i.e., if you were unemployed and had no occupation)
  • Lawful source of income
  • Marital status
  • National origin
  • Partnership status
  • Race-and-
  • Sexual orientation.

Question 3: if you are asserting RETALIATION, how were treated differently after you filed, helped someone file a discrimination complaint, participated as a witness to a discrimination complaint, or opposed or reported discrimination due to any category above?

When it comes to retaliation, you have to specify (1) the act(s) that you opposed, (2) the act(s) that you believed was/were unlawful, and (3) the retaliatory treatment that you suffered.

Question 4: do you have any witness who SAW or HEARD the harassment or discriminatory incident(s)/act(s)?

In order to have an actionable discrimination claim, the employment and labor law requires you to provide at least 2 witnesses who either saw or heard the discriminatory incident(s) or act(s).

Question 5: what is your answer to the following “yes” or “no” questions?

  • Did you report or complain about the discrimination to a supervisor?

It is advisable that any discriminatory or harassment act(s) or incident(s) should be reported to your supervisor immediately after taking place.

  • Were other people treated the same as you (in other words, did others receive the same poor treatment you received? Were they treated better than you were?)

In case you know another employee who was treated the same as you did (suffered a similar act(s) or incident(s)) or even treated better than you were, then you should mention it when making your discrimination claim.

Question 6: what are your expectations by way of SETTLEMENT/CONCILIATION here? To settle this complaint, what do you want?

It is no secret that everybody who suffers a discriminatory act wants a day in court and sues for a million dollars in damages. However, most claims do not get there and not because cases are weak, but because everybody wants to settle as soon as possible due to the high costs of lawsuits. In this regard, you may want to consider some ways of settlement or reconciliation, including:

  • Payment for time missed
  • Payment for time going forward
  • Payment for emotional distress
  • Reinstatement to your job with accommodations
  • A promise in writing that the harassment will stop
  • A letter of apology (you may spend a lifetime waiting for a letter of apology from an employer)
  • Alternative employment (probably in another position or department)-and-
  • Others (anything else you are looking for in particular).

Above is the list of questions that you need to consider in order to have an actionable discrimination claim against your employer. As Vinny says, if you can answer yes to any of the above and articulate your position, then you are in good shape and could move to the next stage, get a retainer agreement in place, and start strategizing how you will achieve your goals!

Please, feel free to view our video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llFd_iDi8mA.

As we continue hammering on new stuff every day, stay tuned for more educative videos, inspiring training, & legal advice. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.