Texas employers that believe that workplace discrimination is not a problem should take a look at the number of complaints resolved by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a single year. The commission reported securing over $482 million for victims after addressing 97,443 charges of employment discrimination nationwide in fiscal 2016.
Retaliation topped the list of complaints in that year, accounting for nearly 46 percent of the charges. Racial discrimination came in second at 35.3 percent, and discrimination because of a disability ranked third at 30.7 percent of charges. Workers also suffered discrimination because of their sex or age, which produced the fourth and fifth most common complaints.
The judgments and settlements recovered for arose from all types of workplaces, including private sector employers and federal, state and local governments. The EEOC typically approaches employers and seeks to resolve the situation through mediation. A success rate of 76 percent emerged from cases mediated by the commission. Some cases required litigation, however. The EEOC filed 86 lawsuits in fiscal 2016, with 31 cases having multiple victims or policies and the remainder on behalf of individual workers.
Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms, including denial of employment or promotion, demotion, cut in pay, assignment of undesirable work hours, or harassment because of national origin, race, sex, age or disability. People who feel that they have been unfairly targeted and who have been harmed as a result may want to meet with an attorney in order to see what recourse may be available to them.
