Race Discrimination Firm Serving Miami-Dade County & Surrounding Areas
Race discrimination in the workplace happens when an employer treats applicants or employees differently or less favorably because of their race. There are federal, state, and local laws that prohibit this type of discrimination. Under federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), and under state law, the Florida Civil Rights Act (“FCRA”), which apply to employers with 15 or more employees, employers cannot discriminate against applicants or employees because of their race. Under local laws in Miami-Dade County, for example, similar protections apply to employers that have 5 or more employees.
In addition, 42 U.S.C. 1981 (“Section 1981”), offers protection against race discrimination, but does not require that an employee or applicant go through the administrative process of filing a charge with an administrative agency, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Instead, the employee or applicant may immediately file a lawsuit in court. Also, claims under Section 1981 provide different damages than claims under Title VII.
The protections under federal, state, and local laws extend to all aspects of employment for employees and applicants, including hiring, pay, training, promotion, job assignments, discipline, layoff, and termination. Claims of race discrimination may be proven based on direct or circumstantial evidence. Some examples of direct evidence include a manager’s remark that the employee is being terminated “because you’re Hispanic” or an interviewer’s comment that the company “won’t hire any African-American candidates.”
Most cases are proven through the circumstantial evidence analysis, which means that an employer treats employees or applicants of other races more favorably than employees or applicants of a specific race, for example African-American. An employer may face a claim for race discrimination if it terminates an African-American sales person for not meeting her sales quota but does not terminate non-African-American employees who also failed to meet their sales quota. Similarly, the inclusion of Hispanic employees in a Reduction-in-Force (“RIF”) while non-Hispanic employees are not included in the RIF could support a race discrimination claim. Ultimately, whether legal grounds exist to support a race discrimination claim depends on the facts of each particular case.
Lawyers from BT Law Group have extensive experience advising clients about, and litigating, claims of race discrimination. If you believe you have been discriminated against because of your race, please contact the attorneys at BT Law Group for a consultation.
