What kind of workplace retaliation Illegal?
Retaliation is the most frequently alleged basis of discrimination in employment cases and it’s the most common discrimination finding by the EEOC. Federal and Texas employment laws prohibit punishing job employees for asserting their rights to be free from employment discrimination including EEO-based harassment. Asserting these EEO rights is called "protected activity," and it can take many forms. For example, it is unlawful to retaliate against employees for:
Reporting discrimination or harassment to a manger or HR
Filing or being a witness in an EEO charge, complaint, investigation, or lawsuit
Communicating with a supervisor or manager about employment discrimination, including sexual harassment
Answering questions during an employer investigation of alleged harassment or discrimination
resisting sexual advances, or intervening to protect others from improper advances
requesting accommodation of a disability or for a religious practice
Participating in a EEO complaint process is protected from retaliation under all circumstances. Other acts to oppose discrimination are protected as long as the employee was acting on a reasonable belief that something in the workplace may violate EEO laws, even if he or she did not use legal terminology to describe it.
It should be noted, however, that not all internal reports garner legal protection from retaliation. Reporting your boss did something you feel is “unethical” surprisingly may not be a protected report unless the conduct was also illegal. Similarly, reporting harassment or bullying that is not based on and EEO-category (e.g. sex, race, etc) is most likely not protected activity. As surprising as it may be, it often is not illegal for an employer to retaliate against an employee for making such reports.
