Though the United States is supposed to be a country founded on freedom of religion, the unfortunate reality is that many people still face discrimination in the workplace based on what they believe. There are laws against this, but it still happens.

Fortunately, you don’t have to accept it. You have rights and there are steps you can take. To make the abuse stop, but first you need to identify that it’s happening. While every case is different, here are a few examples:

• Your boss segregates you from the rest of the workforce based on your religion. For instance, maybe you want to work at the front desk, but your boss cites concerns about what customers will think and instead only lets you work in the back.
• You get paid less than other employees who do the same job, with the same hours, and who have the same qualifications. The only difference is that they have a different religion than you, and they earn more because of it.
• You get passed over for promotions based on your religion. You know that you’re the most qualified, but your supervisors do not want someone of your religion rising up the corporate ladder.
• You get demoted or even fired when they find out your religion. Maybe you never mentioned it when you got hired. Despite being a good employee, when it finally comes up, it leads to the immediate termination of your position.

Against, every case is unique and these are by no means all of the ways that discrimination happens. If you do feel like your rights have been violated, it’s time to find out what next steps to take.

Whenever you sign an employment contract, you need to make sure that it contains all the proper elements to define your job. Remember, while your contract can offer you protection from things like a firing without warning, giving you security. It also tells you your obligations and shows what the company must do for you in turn. Never take this lightly or assume you know what a contract offers without reading it.

Here are a few things a contract should outline:

• The compensation you get, whether it is hourly pay or a simple salary
• The benefits that go along with that compensation
• The hours that you are expected to work, including how many hours and when you have to work
• How you can get time off, whether it is for vacation or due to illness
• What special rules you need to follow at the company
• What process can lead to a termination of your job
• Exactly what tasks and duties you are expected to do in the course of your employment
• What type of employee you are and how you are classified for tax purposes
• What company secrets you need to keep and what you can do with confidential information
• Whether or not you’re allowed to work for a similar company when leaving your position
• The total length of the contract (whether it lasts for a single year or is open-ended) and whether it is subject to renewal

These are just a few examples, but they help to show why it’s important to go over a contract carefully and really understand the legal side of the documents that you decide to sign.

Have you ever had a job that was so terrible you wondered how any human being could tolerate it? What if the awful nature of the job required you to commit a crime, endanger your life or endure extremely uncomfortable conditions? Even worse, what if your employer created these circumstances on purpose, just to get you to quit?

If you left a job because of the egregious working conditions, you could be a victim of a type of wrongful termination called “constructive dismissal.” These cases can happen when an employer wants to fire you but doesn’t have a lawful reason to do so. Maybe you’re protected from termination due to the employment contract you signed. Or, maybe the employer wants you to leave because of your race, national origin, religious viewpoint, disability status, gender – or some other protected status – but directly terminating you isn’t an option.

Here’s what you’ll need to prove in a case like this:

• The terrible working conditions were a recurring theme of your job, and they were sufficiently awful that any reasonable worker would have been compelled to quit.
• Your employer knew that you were facing the horrible conditions, or your employer purposefully created the horrible conditions to inspire you to leave the job.

No employee in Florida should ever have to endure working conditions that are unreasonably difficult, dangerous or unlawful. If your employer indirectly forced you to leave your job by creating or allowing such conditions, you might want to investigate whether you can pursue a claim for constructive dismissal in state or federal court.

A Florida case involving healthcare fraud finally settled in 2017 after years of undercover work by the whistleblower and his team. Freedom Health in Tampa was the company that came under intense government scrutiny following the “qui tam” complaint filed by employee Darren Sewell.

What happened

Darren Sewell was a vice president at Freedom Health in Tampa, a company owned by wealthy entrepreneur Kiran C. Patel. The company thrived on the administration of Medicare plans. Sewell became convinced Freedom Health was also bilking the government out of millions of dollars by running scams involved with the Medicare Advantage plan.

Filing a complaint

In becoming a whistleblower, Sewell filed a “qui tam” complaint under the False Claims Act, backing it up with hundreds of supporting documents, including spreadsheets and emails. Basically, this meant that on behalf of the government, he was filing suit against Freedom Health, whom he believed was defrauding the government. This kind of complaint is filed in secret, allowing the government to pursue its own investigation. Meanwhile, Sewell went to work as usual. Every night, he shared any information pertinent to the case with an FBI agent and an attorney who had experience working with whistleblowers.

Final results

In 2016, the Justice Department joined the lawsuit Sewell had started seven years earlier. In 2017, Freedom Health finally settled for $31.7 million against charges that the company had violated the False Claims Act. The company president, Sidd Pagidipati, paid $750,000 to settle his part of the charges. However, neither he nor founder Patel ever admitted to committing fraud. Unfortunately, Darren Sewell did not live to see the results of his hard work. After taking a fall at his home, he died as the result of a brain injury. His estate shared in the whistleblower recovery of $6.4 million.

Other protections

Becoming a whistleblower is not an easy decision to make, but those who do may expect protection under OSHA, Sarbanes-Oxley and the Florida Whistleblower Act. In addition to the False Claims Act, those who file a complaint of wrongdoing against an employer and/or participate in a government investigation can seek legal assistance.

Genetic testing has been available for decades. It’s useful for determining a lot of information about someone, and these days, doctors and scientists will know more about you than ever after obtaining a small sample of your DNA. So will your boss.

Although it goes against every fabric of “right and wrong,” it’s easy to foresee a future in which people are discriminated against on the basis of their DNA signatures. Perhaps scientists will identify a “smart gene,” and employers will refuse to hire anyone who doesn’t have it. Or, maybe an art studio will only hire artists who have the “art gene.” This is a terrifying future indeed.

But that’s now how the future will be in the United States as long as we have the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). This act makes it unlawful for an employer or a prospective employer to treat you unfairly. It also makes it unlawful for your employer to decide to hire you or not hire you based on DNA and other medical records. Also, harassing you, calling you names or paying you different amounts of money because of your medical information is prohibited.

Just like other forms of discrimination — like gender, national origin, race, color, sex, religious and pregnancy discrimination — employers might still try to get away with it. That’s why employees who suspect they’ve been victims of this abuse of the law must step forward to defend their rights.

Were you a victim of DNA, genetic information or medical information discrimination at work? Our law office can tell you about your legal rights and how to pursue justice in court.

When you take a first look at the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, it’s easy to think that it happens because of physical attraction. You think it’s based on lust or the desire for a more intimate relationship that is not shared by the other party.

While these things may play a role in some cases, experts have noted that the real issue is power. Sexual harassment is a way for a person in power to assert that control over the other person. It makes the victim feel nervous and vulnerable. It puts them off their guard. It makes them feel inferior to the other party.

The perpetrator does not want a relationship and has no real attraction to the victim. They just want to show that they are the dominant person in the workplace, and they choose this way to do it.

That mentality can really create a toxic atmosphere at work. It makes the victim feel constantly afraid that the harassment is going to continue. If they push back against it, the aggressor may take that as a sign of attempted dominance and decide to harass the other party even more. It becomes a power struggle, when all the victim really wants is the respect that they deserve.

If you find yourself in this situation, you need to know what legal steps you can take. No one deserves to be treated like this at work, and there are things you can do to put an end to it. An experienced attorney can provide valuable guidance and information.