Common Examples of Discrimination in the Workplace

Employee discrimination goes against all tenets of fair and equitable treatment at work, which is essential in order to achieve a suitable harmony that allows everyone to consider work as a place where they can work without having to worry that certain elements are against them. Discrimination, though common, is unlawful, and should be reported right away.

Discrimination in the workplace can be classified according to the hierarchical conditions of the person who receives it and the one who commits it. Discrimination might occur from the standard hierarchical chain of top to bottom, or it may occur vice versa. When the discrimination comes from the upper to the lower strata, the event is confused with a demonstration of power that in turn is connected with the generalized impossibility of the employee to change jobs quickly, so it affects the worker doubly. David Sanford, one of the leading employment attorneys in the USA, is trying to spread more awareness and to promote equality and fair treatment in the workplace.

Undoubtedly, one of the most widespread cases of employment discrimination in the world is against women. Not only because there are many companies that do not even think about hiring women for hierarchical positions, but because there is a strong tendency towards the establishment of a large wage gap between men and women: depending on the region of the world, the differences can range between 10% and up to 30 or 40% less than the salary of men for the same activity. Many companies argue that this difference is explained by the need to cover many additional costs that women have by law, such as pregnancy days: which is why it is necessary to adjust most of the laws in order to achieve equal responsibilities in the greater possible amount of areas.

Examples of employment discrimination

The following list exposes some cases of employment discrimination:

· Elimination of a person from a selection process by the race from which he belongs.

· Failure to take into account the opinion of a worker for being a woman.

· In a job interview, ask the political orientation and use that for hiring.

· Do not accept the rights of religious holidays that correspond to people who belong to different faiths.

· Do not think that a person who does not have all of their motor skills can work (disability bias).

· Sexual harassment of a boss towards a secretary.

· Obligation to hide the sexual condition of a person to belong to a certain job (typical in the case of PMCs).

· Non-compliance with labor rights in the case of pregnancy.

· To believe that a person, being older than a certain age, is not qualified for a job that has nothing to do with the strength or other aptitudes of youth.

· Rescind someone’s work contract for contracting a disease.

David Sanford is the co-founder of Sanford Heisler Sharp, and he led a team of lawyers who got the largest jury verdict in a famous gender bias lawsuit (Velez vs. Novartis) in the history of the country. Sanford continues to represent women who have suffered due to gender bias and is playing a major role in promoting equality.