Fremont, CA asked in Employment Discrimination and Employment Law for California

Q: being framed for violating protected act(CA) against a female employee

HR pulled me on a casual conversation bw co-worker and me that occurred 10 weeks back. during it she mentioned she stays with her parents in a latino family, I shared that I lived in a latino neighborhood and people were very nice and made / shared food with us, and cali has good latino pop, all positive (not making anything up to save me), she was having troubles at work with people not giving her enough attention and even being sarcastic due to her limited experience, I am in engineering and she is non engg, she gave me specific examples and I recommended that she can go to managers as they would be nice to her being new and can get the adv to learn, conv was on zoom) we were having this conv for work for last 3 months since the time she joined and was in my team

I was told that I used latino and that being women she has adv in front of managers , which was never used, now i am subject to using race/women at workplace and harassment, how do I prove my innocence here?

2 Lawyer Answers
Neil Pedersen
Neil Pedersen
Answered
  • Employment Law Lawyer
  • Westminster, CA
  • Licensed in California

A: You have not asked a question, only provided a set of facts. It is therefore hard to know what you seek from the Q&A board.

First, this board is not a place to solicit an attorney to work for you. If you believe you have a legal claim your need to seek out and then contact attorneys in the practice area to determine if any are willing to work on your case. To do that I would suggest you look either on this site, or go to www.cela.org, the home page for the California Employment Lawyers Association, an organization whose members are dedicated to the representation of employees against their employers.

Second, there is little legally you can do in this situation. The employer has an affirmative legal obligation to investigate the claims made by this person. As an at will employee you can be terminated or disciplined for any reason or even no reason at all. You are going to have to defend yourself and hope you can convince your employer that you are telling the truth. It would be lawful for your employer to determine you did not engage in the harassment and then still fire you.

Good luck to you.

Louis George Fazzi
Louis George Fazzi
Answered
  • Employment Law Lawyer
  • Jess Ranch, CA
  • Licensed in California

A: You don't have to do anything to prove your innocence. I don't see anything you did that was inappropriate.

Stand up for your rights in front of HR. It looks like you were mentoring a newer employee. If you believe you are being unfairly targeted, you have the right to file a complaint of discrimination based on race or national origin (Latino or Hispanic) with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

Go to https://www.dfeh.ca.gov/ to file your claim. You can do that yourself.

If you feel you need a lawyer to guide you, do what Mr. Pedersen suggested and go to the California Employment Lawyer's Association's website www.cela.org and look for a lawyer in your area. There are many good ones in the Bay Area where you are located.

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