Allegations of workplace discrimination can be incredibly harmful to your business. Not only do they threaten you with the possibility of a costly judgment, but they can also lead to claims by other disgruntled employees, and they can severely damage your business’s reputation in the marketplace. You don’t want to face these outcomes if you can avoid them, which is why it’s imperative that you know how to aggressively defend yourself in a workplace discrimination case.
Yet, figuring out how to do so can be tricky depending on the facts of your case, and it can be easy to get tangled up in the details of your strained relationship with a current or former employee. That’s why in this post we want to look at some of the stronger defense options that may be available to you. That way you’ll have a better idea of which direction to take your case to maximize your chances of securing the outcome that you want.
You can’t improvise your workplace discrimination defense and hope to achieve a favorable outcome. Instead, you have to be targeted in your arguments, keeping an eye on the legal elements that the plaintiff has to prove to be successful. With that in mind, here are some workplace discrimination defenses that might prove beneficial in your case:
- Bona fide occupational qualification: A required personal characteristic that may seem discriminatory on its face might actually be a critical part of the job at hand. When that’s the case, you might be able to successfully argue that the restriction is question is a bona fide occupational qualification. Just keep in mind that race is not a requirement for any job duty, so if the plaintiff is arguing that you’ve discriminated based on that, then you won’t be able to rely on this defense.
- Business necessity: Similarly, there may be qualifications that seem like they disparately impact a certain group of people but are necessary for the performance of the job. For example, a weightlifting requirement might disproportionately affect women, but if the job can’t be done without lifting those heavy amounts, then the restriction is not discriminatory in nature and is instead a business necessity.
- Poor work performance: This is probably the most used defense in workplace discrimination cases. A lot of disgruntled employees claim that they were acted against based on a discriminatory purpose, when in reality they were subjected to an adverse employment action because of poor performance. So, be sure to scrutinize an employee’s performance appraisals and any other feedback that has been given to them since they started working for you to see if this is a viable argument that you can make in the face of discrimination allegations.
- After-acquired evidence: Even if the adverse employment action in question seems discriminatory, you might still be able to protect yourself and your business if you can show that you later discovered that the employee in question engaged in some sort of wrongdoing that, had you known it at the time, would’ve justified the adverse employment action that was taken. This can include things like employee theft and falsification of documents.
Know how to protect your interests in a workplace discrimination case
There’s a lot that goes into a workplace discrimination defense. You have to have a command of the facts, an understanding of the law and a willingness to fight for a just outcome. If that’s something that you want assistance with, then be sure to seek out the guidance needed to put you in a strong legal position.