Discrimination, Retaliation?

I am a national Mexican; since I filed a discrimination charge back in 2002, and complained to upper management about lack of advancement and lack of pay increase (June 2003 and December 2003) my employment with the company has endured a few setbacks, first, I was denied of a pay increase for 2003, although my perfomance review was very positive. Second, In December 2003 Three other employees (All white) were promoted to a higer position, for which I was quilified as them. Management advised me that he would not give me a raise or promotion due to budget limitiations. I believe that if they had money for the other employees, they could have money for me. Not only that, but on January 06, I became aware I had been demoted, without warning or explanation. I believe that there is no basis for the demotion, and I have documents that support my claim. What options do I have

1 answer  |  asked Feb 2, 2004 10:05 PM [EST]  |  applies to Arizona

Answers (1)

Francis Fanning
Discrimination claims begin with a charge

Before you can file a lawsuit to remedy discrimination, you must first exhaust your administrative remedies. For employees who don't work for the federal government or the State, this means filing a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This agency enforces most of the federal anti-discrimination laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion and national origin), The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (protects employees over 40 from age discrimination), the Americans with Disabilities Act (protects qualified individuals with a disability from discrimination) and the Equal Pay Act (prohibits pay discrimination based on sex). Your claims, both for discrimination and for retaliation, come under Title VII. The Arizona Civil Rights Division of the Attorney General's office works in conjunction with the EEOC to investigate claims of discrimination and to enforce the Arizona Civil Rights Act, which prohibits all the same forms of discrimination as the federal laws described above. When you file a charge with one of these agencies, they share it with the other agency.
It's usually a good idea to make a complaint within the company before going to an outside agency, but it sounds like your prior complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Don't wait too long to file a charge. Your complaint about the 2002 discrimination is already too old to form the basis of a charge.

posted by Francis Fanning  |  Feb 3, 2004 11:38 AM [EST]

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