File a Workplace Discrimination or Harassment Complaint

You experienced discrimination or harassment in the workplace based on a protected characteristic. Workplace discrimination complaints are among the most important employment rights actions, as they protect not only you but also future employees. Here are the most common forms of workplace discrimination: - Direct discrimination: You were treated less favorably than others specifically because of a protected characteristic (age, gender, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, or national origin). Examples include being passed over for promotion, receiving lower pay, or being excluded from opportunities. - Indirect discrimination: A workplace policy, practice, or rule that applies to everyone but disproportionately disadvantages people with a particular protected characteristic. For example, a requirement that disproportionately excludes women, part-time workers, or people of certain religions. - Harassment: Unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, or offensive environment. This includes verbal abuse, offensive jokes, unwanted physical contact, displaying offensive material, or persistent unwelcome behavior. - Sexual harassment: Unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, including sexual comments, requests for sexual favors, unwelcome touching, sexually explicit communications, or creating a sexually hostile work environment. - Victimization: Being subjected to adverse treatment because you raised a discrimination complaint, supported someone else's complaint, or gave evidence in discrimination proceedings. Victimization protection applies even if the underlying discrimination claim is unsuccessful. - Failure to make reasonable adjustments (disability): Your employer failed to make reasonable accommodations for your disability, such as modified duties, flexible working hours, assistive equipment, accessible premises, or adjusted absence management policies. - Equal pay violation: You are being paid less than a colleague of a different gender (or other protected characteristic) for equal work, work rated as equivalent, or work of equal value. - Discriminatory dismissal: You were fired, made redundant, or not renewed specifically because of a protected characteristic or in retaliation for raising discrimination concerns. - Harassment by third parties: You experienced harassment from clients, customers, or contractors, and your employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent or address it. - Intersectional discrimination: You experienced discrimination based on a combination of protected characteristics (for example, being a disabled woman of color), which may be more severe than discrimination based on any single characteristic alone.