How To Handle Employment Discrimination: Your Questions Answered

Roxanne Conlin & Associates, P.C., has fought for employees’ rights for more than 57 years. Roxanne Conlin, our lead attorney, served as an assistant attorney general for Iowa and led the Iowa Civil Rights section. In that role, she fought race and sex discrimination on behalf of working Iowans. Few firms in Iowa bring that depth of experience to employment discrimination cases.

Roxanne’s Rules For Avoiding Sexual Harassment

Roxanne Conlin developed these three simple tests to help anyone in the workplace identify when behavior has crossed the line:

• If you would not say it to your mother, do not say it to your co-worker.
• If you would not do it with your daughter in the room, don’t do it on the job.
• If you don’t want to see it in detail on the front page of the paper, don’t do it and don’t say it.

These rules are easy to remember. If conduct in your workplace fails any one of them, our team can help you understand whether you have a legal claim. 

The questions and answers below cover the topics our clients ask about most.

What is a hostile work environment in Iowa?

According to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, a hostile work environment is one that is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule and insult sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the worker’s conditions of employment and create an abusive working relationship. Factors that the courts use to determine whether the environment is sufficiently hostile to justify bringing a lawsuit include the following:

• The frequency of the conduct
• The severity of the conduct
• Whether the conduct is physical or verbal
• Whether it unreasonably interferes with a worker’s performance
• The effect of the conduct on its victims

The harassment must be objectively abusive, and the worker who files the complaint also must experience it as abusive. Only workers who are in a hostile environment based on their race, color, creed, sex, place of national origin, age or condition of disability can bring a civil rights complaint. Workers who are being mistreated for other reasons, whether fair or unfair, do not have the option of bringing a lawsuit. They can seek assistance through internal company processes or quit.

What is illegal discrimination?

Illegal discrimination is making a difference in treatment, at least in part, because of race, color, creed, sex, age, place of national origin, or condition of disability or pregnancy.

Does unfair treatment at work give you a legal case?

No. Employers are generally under no obligation to treat their workers fairly. If the adverse treatment is based on some forbidden factor like your race, sex or age, it is illegal. Of course, if you are a union member, you should contact your union representative for help.

What should you do if work is making you sick?

Go to the doctor. If your work is making you sick, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation. This is not the kind of work we do, but we can refer you to a lawyer who can help you evaluate your workers’ compensation case.

Can your employer fire you for filing a workers’ compensation claim?

It is illegal to retaliate against someone for making a valid workers’ compensation claim.

Do you have a case if you were fired without good reason?

No. Treating people unfairly is not illegal. An employer can fire workers for any reason or no reason. Iowa is an at-will state, which means that, just as you can quit whenever you want to, the employer can fire you whenever they want to. They don’t need a good reason. And it doesn’t have to be fair. There are a few very limited exceptions to the at-will employment rule. If you are fired, and a part of the reason is a forbidden factor, you may have an employment discrimination case. The factors an employer cannot use to fire you are your race, your national origin, your sex, your age, your condition of disability if it can be accommodated and your religion.

If you have a contract that guarantees your employment, you can sue for breach of contract. If your employer has made untrue statements about you that are harmful, you may have a claim for defamation. If the treatment you received violates all the principles of a civilized society and has caused you very severe emotional distress, you may have a claim for tortious infliction of severe emotional distress. Such a claim is a very difficult case to make. If you are employed by the government, you may have some special rights under the Constitution.

If you are fired for refusing to break the law, you may be able to sue for a violation of public policy. If you are fired because you used the Family and Medical Leave Act or because you were about to get additional pension or other benefits, your rights under federal ERISA law may have been violated.

What should you do if your employer asks you to falsify records?

Never falsify a record, no matter who tells you to do it. You may be the one ultimately blamed, and you could end up in trouble or in prison. Report your supervisor up the chain of command. Keep very complete records of who you tell, when and what they say. You may tape-record your conversations with others, but not secretly. Take your tape recorder, put it in plain sight, press the record button and say, “I am taping my conversation with John Doe on July 10, 2000, so we will both have a complete and accurate record of what was said.” Don’t be hostile or accusatory. Just state the facts as completely as you can and ask for help. If you get fired, you might need two things: one, your own careful documentation of your efforts to prevent false records being made and the law being violated, and two, proof of the actual numbers and the correct records. Be very careful not to take any records from your employer that you are not entitled to have. You may store copies of such documents in a computer file, which only you can access with a complicated secret password. Then, when you need them, they will still be there, but you will not have stolen them.

Talk To A Des Moines Employment Discrimination Attorney For A Free Consultation

When you bring your case to our firm, you work directly with an attorney who has spent their entire career protecting workers in Iowa. At Roxanne Conlin & Associates, P.C., we give every client personal attention and genuine compassion from the very first conversation. Call us at 515-283-1111 or reach out to us online to schedule a free consultation.