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Refusal to Hire, Refusing to Promote and Retaliation in Employment Discrimination

Representing Tulsa Employees with Compassion, Dedication and Commitment for 30 Years

Many employees in Tulsa, and throughout Oklahoma, face discrimination in hiring or obtaining promotions based on illegal criteria including race, sex, national origin, age, religion and disability. Despite the protections provided to these protected classes by Title VII and other federal and state laws, many Oklahoma employees suffer employment discrimination in hiring and promotion by their employer. In other cases, employees who exercise their rights including: family leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, right to reasonable accommodations for disabled employees who are otherwise qualified or right to "blow the whistle" on employers that are engaged in illegal, fraudulent or unsafe conduct, suffer retaliation for exercising a legal right. 

In my Tulsa-based law office of Jeff Nix, I bring a unique mix of 30 years of employment law experience and forty years in the business world, as both an employee and employer, allowing me to provide a unique perspective to clients. My philosophy is to allow my experience in a diverse cross-section of business settings on both sides of the employment relationship to provide depth to my understanding of employment disputes and foster creative solutions. I have over forty years of experience in the business world, which means I bring practical experience regarding employment law issues.

 

Employee Hiring Discrimination

While an employer has a right to exercise individual discretion in hiring decisions, an employer may not narrow the field or make an ultimate hiring decision based on certain personal characteristics including:

  • Race

  • Disability (reasonable accommodation required for otherwise qualified employee)

  • Sex / Gender

  • Nationality

  • Age

  • Religion

  • Sexual Orientation (in some cases)

 

If you believe you have been denied employment in Oklahoma based, in part, on having any of these characteristics, you may have a right to bring a legal claim under Title VII and/or other applicable federal and state laws. These cases can be challenging because employers typically do not admit to using one of these unlawful grounds for making hiring decisions. Typically, I must carefully analyze an employer's past hiring practices and the composition of the employer's current workforce. Sometimes a court may be persuaded that an employer used unlawful criteria to hire employees, based on statistical analysis of an employer's hiring practices and workforce.

My law firm engages in extensive discovery in hiring discrimination cases, because I look for evidence of discriminatory motives in the employer's memos, internal documents and policies that provide critical evidence of the employer's intent. I also use the discovery process to search for evidence that the employer's stated reason for a hiring decision is a pretext to conceal improper hiring criteria.

My law firm of Jeff Nix also represents employees who are denied employment based on pre-employment drug testing. Oklahoma law imposes strict criteria and procedures for drug testing of employees given conditional offers of employment. Many times employers fail to follow these procedures, which may give you a right to seek compensation for the adverse employment decision.

 

Refusal to Promote Employees

Employees have a right to expect employers to make a promotion decision based on relevant objective criteria including seniority, qualifications, experience and similar factors. When an employer denies an employee the right to a promotion based on the prohibited criteria above, you may have a legal claim for employment discrimination. These cases increasingly involve employers who are attempting to use so-called affirmative action programs based on impermissible criteria such as gender or race.

My forty years in the business world have helped me fashion a keen awareness of the emotional distress and fiscal hardship involved when an employee who is more qualified is passed over based on illegal criteria. The financial hardship and emotional harm not only affects the employee who is passed over, but also the employee's family. In my law office we believe that employers who ignore merit including experience, education, training, seniority and work history should be held accountable.

If you are denied a promotion, or an employer does not hire you based on any discriminatory basis involving your membership in one of the protected groups above, you may have a right to seek hiring/reinstatement, back pay, front pay, attorney's fees and costs and other damages depending on the specifics of your particular case.

 

Retaliation for Exercising Legal Rights

Many Oklahoma employees quietly tolerate employment discrimination or unlawful or unsafe conduct by their employer because they are afraid of losing their jobs. When the state of the economy is poor and the unemployment rate is high, the pressure to avoid retaliation by one's employer is even more intense. Because of the inherently vulnerable position that an employee is in when confronted with unlawful, discriminatory or hazardous conduct by an employer, many federal and state laws protect employees from retaliation by employers for exercising legal rights. Some common examples of situations where federal or Oklahoma law protects an employee from retaliation include:

  • Complaints brought by employees for unsafe work conditions

  • Claims of employment discrimination based on Title VII status

  • Request for reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA)

  • Exercising the right to time off under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

  • Pursuing worker's compensation claims

  • Alerting an employer of illegal, fraudulent of unsafe practices

  • Being terminated because you are pregnant

 

This is a mere sample of situations where an employee asserting a legal right is protected from employer retaliation. Your protection extends far beyond mere protection from termination. An employer may not retaliate in any of the following ways:

  • Terminate employment

  • Fail to hire

  • Deny a promotion

  • Transfer you to a less desirable position

  • Impact your pay, title or seniority

  • Impose other forms of retaliation

 

In my Tulsa law office we all share a commitment to fighting for the rights of Oklahoma employees who have been treated unfairly and subjected to unlawful employment practices. I understand that you may be worried about employer retaliation. This is why I offer a free initial consultation that is absolutely confidential. I will inform you of your rights, and help you protect yourself from unlawful retaliation by your employer. Call me today at (918) 587-3193.

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