Do I Have a Retaliation Case?

Seek Skilled Legal Help From Our Atlanta Employment Law Attorneys

When seeking Atlanta workplace retaliation lawyers for a potential case, it’s important to consider a few major facts and definitions. This way, as we’re building a sound and legal argument, you remain well-informed and understand your defense.

What is Retaliation?

Retaliation can be characterized in a few different ways. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), retaliation is best defined as an adverse action by an employer against a covered individual (typically an employee) for participating in a “protected activity.”

What is a Protected Activity?

This is perhaps the most important part of any potential retaliation case. An employee can only sue for retaliation if they are a covered individual who has engaged in a “protected activity.”

“Covered individual” and “protected activity” may seem like loose terms, but they typically apply to those who request accommodations related to employment discrimination based on:

Age

Disability

Sex

Religion

Race

Color

Political preference

National origin

Most other cases do not typically count as retaliation, including negative consequences as a result of “whistleblowing” in the face of financial or ethical concerns. However, under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), inquiring about family and medical leave or requesting family and medical leave is also considered a protected activity, as is inquiring about the company retirement package.

What is an Adverse Action?

An adverse action is something an employer may do in order to discourage his or her employees from engaging in these protected activities.

In some cases, employers have been known to:

Fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote these employees
Threaten, unjustly monitor, and generally be negative toward these employees
Intimidate or even assault these employees in order to scare them

How Do You Know If You Have a Retaliation Case?

Recognizing workplace retaliation is sometimes hard to do. People are emotional beings, after all. Is it possible you just misinterpreted your employer’s shortness with you at that last meeting? Are you overanalyzing their attitude because of your participation in the protected activity? Does it seem clear that your employer just isn’t as friendly as they were before?

The key to recognizing if you have a retaliation case is this: Is your employer still being professional?

If your employer’s attitude doesn’t seem to be severely impacting the professional environment at your workplace, it may be difficult for wrongful termination lawyers to gather enough evidence to make an effective retaliation case.

Proving Retaliation

If you’re engaged in a protected activity and your employer drastically reduces your hours, immediately demotes or fires you, or starts giving you work that seems dramatically tilted to spite you, then you may have a provable case of retaliation on your hands.

The first step to building a case is to discuss your suspicions with your employer and keep documentation of when and where you talked about it. From there, keep a written ledger of every confrontation with your manager and how engaging in your protected activity continues to strain the relationship into the future.

If possible, also try to find evidence of positive feedback that’s dated from before you began taking part in the protected activity. If you have nothing but complimentary emails up until the date you started attending employee discrimination meetings, then this may be a clear indication that you have a retaliation case.

Contact the Workplace Retaliation Attorneys at Barrett & Farahany

Everyone deserves a workplace environment where they can complete their tasks in relative peace. When your employer tries to punish you or otherwise affect your ability to work, you may be experiencing workplace retaliation, and no one deserves that.

You do not have to sit and endure it. You can find help from the attorneys at Barrett & Farahany, who have assisted many people handle retaliation cases before. Barrett & Farahany is an award-winning firm. It is the oldest and largest in the southeast, exclusively devoted to protecting employee rights.

We stay on the cutting edge of the law, of technology, and of methods to pursue justice on behalf of people. That’s how we have been able to help many people in your situation before. Don’t endure it alone, contact us today.

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