National Origin Discrimination

Employees with ancestry from other countries should be treated the same as everyone else. Your employer should not discriminate against you due to your national origin or your perceived national origin. Often, there is some overlap between race discrimination and national origin discrimination, but these are two different types of discrimination. If you are harmed by this type of misconduct, you should consult the Dallas national origin discrimination lawyers at Rob Wiley, P.C.

Both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Texas Labor Code prohibit national origin discrimination. Employers covered by these laws are not supposed to make employment decisions based on your national origin. They should not hire, fire, promote, demote, compensate, or assign job duties based on your national origin.

Sometimes national origin discrimination occurs when an employee is treated adversely because of their association with or marriage to somebody from a different ethnic background or national origin. Moreover, national origin discrimination can happen even when the victim and the perpetrator of the discrimination are of the same national origin. There is no requirement that the victim and the perpetrator be of different backgrounds.

One type of national origin discrimination is harassment. Harassment could include offensive remarks about your national origin, ethnicity, or accent. A national origin discrimination attorney in Dallas would need to show that the remarks were severe or pervasive, such that they made the workplace hostile and altered the terms and conditions of employment.

Hostile work environment harassment may be actionable if it is based on a coworker, customer, client, supervisor, or manager’s perception that you have a particular national origin, even if you do not have that national origin. For example, if you routinely receive pictures of camels and get called derogatory names because your coworkers believe that you are from Iran, even if you are from Greece, and when you complain to your boss, your boss tells you to just deal with it, this may constitute national origin harassment.

Your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you as an employee or job applicant based on your citizenship or immigration status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Your employer is not allowed to require you to submit additional documentation beyond what is legally required. You should promptly consult a Dallas national origin discrimination attorney if you are concerned about your rights under this law.

National origin is often related to accent. Employment decisions based on your accent may constitute national origin discrimination. Under Title VII, your employer cannot base a decision on your accent unless the accent interferes materially with your work performance. In other words, the employer needs to prove that effective spoken communication in English is needed to do your job, and your accent materially interferes with your capacity to communicate in spoken English. If there is proof that you have good command of spoken English or do your job well when speaking accented English, your employer likely is violating Title VII if it discriminates against you for your accent.

Some employers implement English-only rules in the workplace. However, English-only rules may also constitute national origin discrimination under Title VII. English-only rules should not be implemented unless they are absolutely needed for the business to run safely or efficiently. In most cases, there is no reason why you should be prevented from speaking in a language other than English.

Texas is full of people from other countries and regions. Employers should not take steps against you because you have roots in another place or because you appear to come from a different country. It is painful to face national origin discrimination in the workplace. You may be able to recover damages for your losses. It is also illegal for your employer to retaliate against you for filing a complaint of national origin discrimination. Contact Rob Wiley, P.C. at (214) 528-6500 or via our online form.