Retaliation

“Illegal Retaliation” as defined by law is a “wrongful action” that the employer takes against an employee who has complained about unlawful employment practices. The “wrongful action” must be one that affects the terms and conditions of the employee’s employment.

The following “wrongful actions” have been found to be “retaliatory” in nature:

1. giving the employee unfair performance reviews;
2. taking away important assignments and giving employee less important ones;
3. demoting the employee;
4. cutting the employee’s hours;
5. taking away the employee’s opportunity to work overtime;
6. giving the employee unfair warnings and discipline;
7. not providing to the employee documents and/or information necessary for the employee to competently do his/her job;
8. barring the employee from training;
9. excluding the employee from meetings and conferences;
10. telling supervisors that the employee is “a troublemaker”;
11. refusing to transfer the employee;
12. bad-mouthing the employee to potential managers;
13. assigning duties that fall outside the employee’s job description;
14. stripping the employee of supervisory duties;
15. embarrassing the employee in front of co-workers;
16. undermining the employee by taking away territories;
17. forcing the employee to train a co-worker and then promoting the co-worker and not the employee who did the training;
18. accusing the employee of being confrontational;
19. disclosing confidential information about the employee to co-workers; and
20. telling the employee to forget about getting a promotion or a raise

If you have complained about unlawful employment practices and, as a result, the employer has taken a “wrongful action” against you, you may have a viable claim against your employer.