Do I have a case against work place harassment?
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Do I have a case against work place harassment?
I was subject to harassment in my work place. It was verbal, it was by email/phone message. I had my clothes damaged which I reported to my superiors and they did nothing to stop the harassment. I was also treated differently by my superiors after words in meetings with the rest of the staff. Snapping at me at little things like moving a mouse on the screen. I was hired to work as the quality manager until they hired a quality manager the I was to be moved to operations manager. They hired a quality engineer and a week later fired me.
Asked on May 1, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
The issue is why were you harassed. The law prohibits employees from being harassed because of certain specificaly protected characteristics, the main ones of which are age over 40, disability, race, national origin, sex, and religion. If you feel your were harassed, discriminated against, and/or fired due to one of these reasons, you may have a legal claim and should speak to the federal EEOC or your state's equal or civil rights agency.
But employers may harass, discriminate against, or fire employees for any reason not specifically prohibited by law. So you could legally be harassed, etc. because of a personality conflict with managers or coworkers, or because of performance issues, or because a manager wants to replace you with his own candidate, etc. Id thw harassment was not due to a protected characteristic, it was most likely legal and you most likely do not have any recourse.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
The issue is why were you harassed. The law prohibits employees from being harassed because of certain specificaly protected characteristics, the main ones of which are age over 40, disability, race, national origin, sex, and religion. If you feel your were harassed, discriminated against, and/or fired due to one of these reasons, you may have a legal claim and should speak to the federal EEOC or your state's equal or civil rights agency.
But employers may harass, discriminate against, or fire employees for any reason not specifically prohibited by law. So you could legally be harassed, etc. because of a personality conflict with managers or coworkers, or because of performance issues, or because a manager wants to replace you with his own candidate, etc. Id thw harassment was not due to a protected characteristic, it was most likely legal and you most likely do not have any recourse.
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