You may be entitled to certain workplace protections depending on your employer, the state where you work, and your profession. These workplace protections include:
- No matter your race, national origin, skin color, gender, pregnancy, religion, disability, or genetic information (and, in some places, your marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristics), you can expect to be treated fairly.
- A harassment-free workplace is a fundamental human right
- If you work over forty hours a week (or, in some places, if you work over eight hours a day) you are entitled to overtime pay plus at least the minimum wage.
- Assuring a safe work environment
- It is your right to take leave following the birth or adoption of a child, or when you have a serious health condition of your own or a family member’s
- Privacy in personal matters.
How to File a Workplace Claim Against Your Employer?
In the event that your legal rights have been violated, how should you proceed? Following are some steps you can take to raise your rights.
- Reach Out to Your Employer
In many circumstances, speaking with your company should be your first action. Most difficulties can be solved with educated discussion, or at the very least, your disagreements can be laid out on the table.
Most businesses desire to stay on the right side of the law and steer out of legal trouble. Unless you work for an employer who is actually uncaring and hostile, your situation is almost always the consequence of a mistake, misinterpretation, or lack of legal knowledge.
Here are some suggestions on how to communicate your complaints to your boss:
- Understand your legal rights. The more informed you are about your rights before the discussion, the more secure you will be in expressing your issue. You can also point out what’s going horribly wrong if your organization is breaking the law by accident or ignorance.
- Keep your focus on the facts. Write a concise overview of the problem and your suggestion for addressing it before visiting your boss. It could be beneficial to have someone more impartial, such as a friend or family member, analyze the data and come up with solutions with you. Make sure you don’t forget any vital details or make any mistakes. Examine your documents to ensure that your remembrance of dates, statistics, and events is correct.
- Don’t get too worked up. Dealing with a job issue can be frustrating, but making false allegations and emotional outbursts will not help you get your point across. If your employment is in jeopardy, try not to aggravate the situation by losing your cool. To ensure that you can stay professional and calm during your presentation, practice it ahead of time.
- Maintain a low profile. Workplace disagreements should be discussed in private. Not only for those engaged but also for outsiders, employment issues can be unpleasant and stressful. You don’t want to be convicted of suffocating your coworkers or forcing them to take sides. Request a meeting with a supervisor or manager to discuss your issues in private.
- As you wrap up your conversation with your boss, make a plan for what will happen next. Will the corporation look into the issue? Will your manager discuss your performance with your coworkers or supervisor? Will there be any changes to assessments, work assignments, or coordination mechanisms?
- Keep in touch with your employer once you’ve spoken with them. If your boss promises to look into the situation or speak with other employees, follow up to see how far they’ve progressed. Arrange another meeting when a few weeks have passed.
- Gather Documentation Regarding the Problem
Defend yourself by documenting the issue in addition to discussing it over with your boss. Make a list of important talks and occurrences, including the time, date, and names of anyone else who was present. Gather evidence such as corporate policies, offer letters, performance evaluations, memos, emails, and other communications, and employee handbooks that may support your side of the story.
Keep in mind, however, that you should only acquire papers to which you have legal access. Taking or duplicating confidential papers, even if they are relevant to your case, could result in your dismissal and jeopardize your legal rights.
Encourage your employees to jot down what they observed and experienced in signed, dated statements if they witnessed or heard any of the episodes that caused this problem (such as an oral performance evaluation, a bullying comment, or a search of your workplace).
- Initiate Legal Course of Action
Try taking legal action if your boss does not appear to have taken your complaint seriously, or if you are degraded or fired. You’ll need to consider your intentions, proof, and desire to spend the time and money that legal action needs while taking decisions.
What are your desired outcomes? If you’re hoping for a multimillion-dollar payout, think again: while such decisions do happen, they’re rare. The great majority of lawsuits are never heard in court.
If you’re enraged, seeking vengeance, or expecting to prove to the world that you were correct all along, keep in mind that such feelings don’t make for a solid legal case — and may even drive you to make terrible decisions in the future.
What are the Strengths of Your Case?
The reliability of the proof is essential to the success of any legal claim. To succeed, you must demonstrate that your rights have been violated — ideally with papers. Facts are not the same as deep feelings or concerns. You should speak with a competent employment lawyer to determine how strong your arguments are and whether you are likely to win.
A Lawsuit is Expensive & Time Consuming. Can You Afford it?
Pursuing legal actions takes a lot of time and money, which you could use to locate and thrive at a new business or job. Lawsuits are also costly. If your case is good enough, you might be able to find a lawyer who would take it on a contingency basis, which means that the lawyer’s fees are deducted from the compensation you win. Even so, you’ll almost certainly have to cover the costs of filing the claim, which can be large. And that contingency fee may be as high as 25%, 33%, or even 40%.
Statutes of Limitations
Be sure to meet your legal deadlines if you decide to proceed. Certain types of lawsuits or claims may be filed within a certain period of time, ranging from about a week to several years. If you are approaching one of these deadlines, you should consider going to court earlier rather than later.
Siman Law Firm Injury lawyers in Los Angeles can assist you in determining how strong your claims are, whether a deadline applies to your case, and what you might expect to gain or lose if you sue.