It is against the law for your employer to punish you for complaining about discrimination, reporting harassment, filing a workers’ compensation claim or blowing the whistle on illegal activity. However, you may not exactly know what illegal retaliation looks like.
Employers take retaliative action in many ways. In order to help you identify illegal employment punishment, here are some examples.
1. Isolation
If you report or complain about something, your employer may retaliate against you by excluding you from activities. For example, your supervisor may not include you in a training session or group lunch. Your employer could also relocate you so you do not have much contact with fellow employees.
2. Hostility
Retaliation can take the form of anger in your boss. For example, he or she could make threats, engage in harassment or intimidate you. Your employer may attempt to make the work environment so difficult to handle to pressure you to quit. Other employees may also participate in hostile actions with permission or encouragement from your employer.
3. Impeding your advancement
An employer may retaliate by stopping you from advancing within your organization. Your employer may conduct an unfairly negative performance review or block you from receiving a promotion. Your employer could even choose a less-qualified person for the promotion.
4. Reassignment
After you report an incident, you may suddenly find yourself assigned to new duties or even moved to a different position. If your employer puts you in a different role, it may be something that is below your capability with lower pay. Your supervisor may also harshly critique your performance to make it particularly difficult.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is illegal for any employer to demote, harass or fire an employee for opposing discrimination or whistleblowing. Now that you know about four common types of employer retaliation, you can take legal action against any retaliative employer.