Employers Duties Under FEHA
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) imposes obligations on California employers to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent harassment and discrimination from occurring and also to investigate claims of harassment and discrimination and to take prompt remedial action. Employers that fail to comply with these provisions run serious risk of liability to employees on harassment or discrimination claims. If you believe that your complaint of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, or other wrongdoing was mishandled by your employer, resulted in retaliation, or that your employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and discrimination from occurring, contact the Southern California FEHA compliance attorneys at Rheuban & Gresen in Los Angeles.
Currently, the FEHA mandates that all supervisory employees obtain yearly training in the prevention of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. The timing, content, and documentation of this mandatory training are prescribed in detail by FEHA and regulations issued by the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC). An employer's failure to provide such training, in and of itself, may lead a judge, jury or arbitrator to conclude that the employer failed to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent harassment and discrimination from occurring. Contact the Los Angeles FEHA compliance attorneys at Rheuban & Gresen to discuss the specific facts of your case.
Employers covered under FEHA also are responsible for investigating complaints of harassment and discrimination (sexual harassment or otherwise), and are required to take prompt remedial action. Often, employers are ignorant of the proper methods of investigating claims of workplace harassment and discrimination. Common mistakes include putting the offending employee and the victim in the same room, using an inexperienced investigator, or failing to identify and interview potential witnesses, among others. Other times, employers fail to take prompt remedial action, even going so far as to leave the offending employee in direct, day to day contact with the victim. Either way, proof of an inadequate investigation of workplace harassment or discrimination and/or proof of an employer's failure to take prompt remedial action are violations of FEHA, and may be actionable depending on your specific circumstances.
For additional information about our ability to analyze the sufficiency of the employer's investigation of your discrimination or harassment complaints, contact the Los Angeles FEHA compliance lawyers at Rheuban & Gresen.
