Workplace Retaliation: Why Let a Great Employment Lawyer Handle your Case

Employment laws are in place to protect employees from workplace retaliation in some situations. But, for the law to apply, the retaliation should result from the employee’s participation in a protected activity. This makes it hard to prove employer retaliation without the assistance of a qualified Austin Employment Discrimination Lawyer. Retaliation is a type of workplace discrimination that often prevents employees from complaining about mistreatment.

Understanding Workplace Retaliation

Workplace retaliation is an action an employer takes against their employee for their involvement in protected activities such as filing a workers’ compensation claim, filing a whistleblower complaint, complaining about discrimination or harassment, and others. Employer retaliation can involve terminating employment, giving demotions or denying promotions, reducing pay without justification, spreading false accusations, and more.

Retaliation in the workplace can be hard to identify as it may begin with something small. Employees who experience this situation should keep detailed notes of the conversations regarding employment and keep copies of documents their employer gave them.

How to Prove Workplace Retaliation

A workplace retaliation case can only be successful when the employee in question took a statutorily protected action and suffered an adverse employment action associated with their protected activity. Typically, it is difficult to prove the link between an employee’s protected activity and adverse employment action as it includes causation. It is unlikely that the employer will the employee that they have been demoted or transferred because of the latter’s protected activity. The employer will try to justify their actions with valid reasons and blame the employee’s work performance or behavior.

Because proving a workplace retaliation claim can be challenging and there is a limit to the time to file a claim, it is best to involve an experienced employment lawyer. The lawyer will use many strategies and resources to investigate the matter and collect evidence to build a strong retaliation case against the employer.