Los Angeles Employment Lawyer

Intentional and Unintentional Discrimination

The anti-discrimination protections extended to Austin employees by state and federal law do more than most people realize. While statutes such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 undoubtedly prohibit blatantly discriminatory behavior, they also bar employers from designing “neutral” policies which are non-discriminatory in theory, but discriminate against a racial, ethnic, gender, or religious group in practice.

Open, intentional discrimination is rare today; though it still exists, discrimination has become much more subtle – or even unintentional. However, existing employment law makes no distinction between discrimination committed knowingly by and employer and discrimination committed as an unforeseen side effect.

For example – if an employer’s hiring practices explicitly place a lower value on female prospective employees (as compared to male prospective employees), almost anyone would be able to point them out as discriminatory. On the other hand, an employer’s rule mandating short hair in the office may appear reasonable at first glance, but could be considered illegal if a court finds that it is too restrictive against women, who are more likely than men to have long hair.

Not all policies are required to be completely neutral, however. The concept of “bona fide occupational qualifications” allows employers to set certain standards for their employees, even if they would otherwise be considered discriminatory, if the standards are reasonable requirements for the performance of the applicant or employee’s job. A modeling agency, for example, could legally bar male applicants from a job modeling women’s clothing.

To learn more about employment law, contact Los Angeles employment lawyer Perry Smith at 888-356-2529.