Legal Question in Employment Law in New York
Racial Comments
My boss (who is the owner and head honcho of the whole company), as well as several of his partners, continuously make racilly derogatory comments about clients, or about different races in general. For instance, we are participating in a Habitat for Humanity project tomorrow, and today they deemed it ''Nailing for Niggers'' since it is in a more run down part of the city. I am Caucasion, as are all of the employees (only 14 of us), but I still do not enjoy this type of negativity. It makes me feel very uncomfortable and awkward. I have even begun to have problems conversing with clients, knowing what my boss(es) are saying about them behind their back, which makes my job much more difficult, considering I am the Receptionist. Do I have any sort of legal recourse against this? Thank you for the help.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Racial Comments
Yes, you do have legal recourse. Please call for a free consultation.
Re: Racial Comments
Generally, the anti - discrimination statutes such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991,
or the State Human Rights Law are
applicable to employment situations, where
the aggreived person has had an adverse impact on his or her employment, as a result of their employer's activity and they are also a member of a protected class (minority or gender) under the ststute. So I don't think the type of recourse you are thiunking of would work in this situation.
However, there is generally more then one appraoch to a problem; for instance, if the company you work for is a goverment contractor, they are subject to a different group of regulations that is rather strict about discrimination.