Des Moines Racial Discrimination Lawyer
Due to liability and federal law, racial discrimination is rarely overt in today's work place. However, employers still engage in racial discrimination through unstated policies in who they hire, who they fire, and who they promote. If your employer has engaged in a pattern of discriminatory behavior or has denied you a promotion when your qualifications and experience make you eligible, you may have grounds for seeking damages in civil court. At Roxanne Conlin & Associates, we represent people who have been denied job opportunities due to racial discrimination or discriminatory practices on the part of employers. Working with our own investigators, we review a company's hiring practices, internal memos, job postings, and human resource files in order to identify patterns of exclusion and discrimination.
In order to determine if you have grounds for a racial discrimination lawsuit, contact civil rights lawyer Roxanne Conlin today and schedule an appointment to discuss your case.
How Can I determine if I have a Case?
Again, in most cases an employer or supervisor will not make explicit, racial comments in regard to why you were not promoted or hired. In many cases, employers can cover themselves by simply interviewing a racial minority, ask them very specific, technical questions, only to claim later the person was not qualified for the job advertised.
However, if a pattern emerges where those hired or promoted are consistently from a certain ethnic or racial group, discrimination may be evident. Alternatively, if an employer denies someone a job or promotion by claiming they have to hire a minority, they may also be liable for racial discrimination: while affirmative action is consistent with federal civil rights legislation, racial quotas are not.
How Can You Establish the Existence of Racial Discrimination?
In order to avoid liability, most every company's legal department has convinced businesses to state they do not discriminate according to race or ethnicity in hiring or promoting employees. While stating as much in an employee handbook or job posting is easy enough, actions speak louder than words. Most of our investigation centers around decision-making on the part of managers and supervisors regarding our client's work history, qualifications, and employee evaluations. Has a company promoted other minorities? Have they punished racially insensitive behavior? Have supervisors or managers made inappropriate comments or repeated racial jokes in the workplace? Have they created a hostile environment?
All these factors paint a picture of unspoken attitudes that are important for establishing the existence of racial discrimination. And, once Ms. Conlin gets a hiring manager or supervisor on the stand, she can then ask the hard questions about a lack of diversity, inconsistencies between an employee's evaluations and his or her lack of promotion, as well as why racially charged comments were not disciplined.
Questions? Contact Employment Law Attorney Roxanne Conlin
We understand how to investigate and expose racial discrimination in the workplace. If you're unsure whether you have a case or what you should do, contact racial discrimination attorney Roxanne Conlin today. We can evaluate your case and explain the legal options available to you for recovering damages.
