Los Angeles Wrongful Termination Attorney

Language Laws in the Workplace

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with a number of other laws and employment regulations, prohibit employment discrimination based on factors such as:

Race
Nation of Origin
Age
Religion
Language
Ethnicity

However, there is a provision in United States employment law that will allow a company to hire or refuse to hire individuals because of the above qualities without being considered discriminatory. This is known as a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification, or BFOQ.

According to US employment law, employers can, in certain situations, hire a person (or refuse to hire a person) based on a quality such as race or religion if the job in question absolutely requires an employee with one of these qualities.

A Concrete Example

To help clarify this point, a concrete example might prove beneficial. Imagine a private Baptist University. The BFOQ provision states that this university would be able to legally specify that university chaplains, high-level administrators, or professors, be Christians, as it directly applicable and necessary to the job in question. However, the university would not be able to require that kitchen staff in the school cafeteria or janitorial staff be Christian as well, as it bears no relevancy to the job in question.

Proving Bona Fide Occupational Qualification

According to United States Code Title 29 (Labor), a company claiming Bona Fide Occupational Qualification for a particular position will need to be able to prove at least one of the following:

The qualifications specified were necessary “to the normal operation of the particular business.”
The practices involve an employee working in a foreign country and failure to work with certain individuals would violate the laws of the country where the workplace is located.
That differentiation is “based on reasonable factors other than age.”

Contact a Los Angeles Wrongful Termination Lawyer

If you or someone you know has been wrongfully terminated, contact Los Angeles wrongful termination lawyer Perry Smith today at 888.356.2529 to discuss your legal rights and options.