Immigrants have some of the most inspiring stories of true life struggle you will find, facing almost inconceivable hardships in order to better their lives. Especially in California, immigrants play a vital role in the workforce and economy, often taking difficult, low-paying jobs as a condition of their immigration status. Despite this essential function in the workforce, employers will sometimes retaliate against their immigrant workers simply because their status holds them to certain requirements.
As one of California’s top-rated workplace retaliation law firms, Maison Law has expert knowledge regarding immigration retaliation in California workplaces, which continues to be a major problem. Immigration retaliation is more common than you might expect, and when it happens, immigrant employees need to know what their rights are under the law.
California Law and Immigration Retaliation
California law, specifically the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), protects all employees from retaliation on the part of the employer. Under this law, retaliation is defined as any harmful or unfavorable action taken against an employee that is either:
- motivated by their status as a member of a protected class, or;
- In response to the employee’s speaking up about unlawful practices occurring in the workplace.
As it relates to immigration retaliation, an employee is protected from unlawful retaliation when they engage in what is known as a “protected activity”. This has a wide variety of potential actions, like:
- Filing a complaint with the California Labor Commission.
- “Whistleblowing”, or reporting illegal activity to the authorities.
- Reporting or complaining about discrimination or any other unlawful employment practice.
Because immigrants play such a vital role in the California workforce and because the immigration system is highly-specialized, the law takes extra steps to provide further protections for these individuals. Specifically, the law explicitly prevents employers from implementing “unfair immigration-related practices” against an immigrant employee that engages in a protected activity. Some of the more common immigration-related practices include:
- Threatening to contact immigration authorities on an employee
- Requiring the employee to produce documentation that is not required under California law
- Rejecting the employee’s immigration documents that otherwise appear to be genuine
- Intentionally misusing the e-verify system
- Threatening the employee with the filing of a false police report
Despite this increased protection, immigrant employees that try to voice concerns about unlawful practices occurring in the workplace can sometimes find themselves with a target on their back.
California Legal Remedies for Immigration Retaliation
If an employee suffers unlawful immigration retaliation in their workplace, they are well within their rights to exhaust all of the available legal remedies at their disposal. There are a number of different ways to do this, as California’s immigration retaliation law is enforced by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office. Filing a complaint with this office will initiate an investigation of the alleged violations of the law. If the Labor Commissioner finds that retaliation has occurred, the office has the authority to issue a cease and desist order, which orders the employer to immediately stop the unlawful actions or to take appropriate corrective actions that will remedy the situation.
If the employee doesn’t want to file an administrative complaint, they can go right to filing a civil lawsuit. While not always the case, most of the time, our experienced employment lawyers will file with the Labor Commission first, just as a means of determining the facts of the case and how it will potentially be defended. However, after consulting with our experienced team, we will be able to better advise the employee as to which route would be the most beneficial. This is especially true if there are statute of limitations issues. The statute of limitations is a law that places a deadline on which a person can file a claim for damages. In a retaliation claim, the employee has three years from the date of the adverse employment action to file suit.
Once a lawsuit is filed, the employee can potentially recover any or all of the following damages:
- Reinstatement to the employee’s job (if they were fired.)
- Recovery of lost wages due to the unlawful termination (known as “back pay“.)
- Damages relating to emotional distress or mental anguish.
Not only would the employer have to pay damages to the employee, they would also possibly face the following punishments:
- Loss of the company’s business’s license.
- A fine of up to $10,000 per employee for each instance of retaliation.
Every lawsuit is a gamble, but the law favors the employee’s rights. Working with our team of employment lawyers will help the employee build an effective case from start to finish.
Get Help From Experienced California Immigration Termination Lawyers
When an employee is facing down immigration retaliation in the workplace, their very livelihood is at stake. An employer has no right to take actions that put an immigrant’s citizenship status in jeopardy. In these situations, consultation with skilled California employment lawyers is a must. To safely and confidentially discuss your case with Maison Law, do not hesitate to contact us today.
