In 2009, U.S. employees filed 93,277 workplace discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the second highest number ever. And for the first time, race discrimination did not top the list of claims.
What came in first? Charges of retaliation — where employees claim they were fired, demoted or harassed because they complained they were victims of discrimination.
Observers of the employment law scene note that it’s often easier for employees to prove retaliation than it is to lay out a compelling case for discrimination. “These statistics affirm what most management employment lawyers have known for some time — today, retaliation is employers’ greatest liability risk,” said Los Angeles attorney Joe Beachboard.
Another EEOC issue to watch: charges made under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which have skyrocketed by 44% in just four years. The increase coincides with recent changes to the ADA that made it easier for people to be classified as “disabled” under the law. And we can expect the trend to continue, Beachboard says: “The numbers will increase even more as workers have more success bringing disability discrimination lawsuits than in the past.”
Beachboard is the moderator of the upcoming Labor & Employment Law Advanced Practices Symposium — LEAP 2010 — scheduled for April 21-23 at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. For more information on the conference, go here.
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