Employees who report sexual harassment in the workplace are protected from retaliation under California employment law. These protections are intended to ensure that workers can speak up about unlawful workplace conduct without fearing punishment, discrimination, or other negative consequences from their employer.
Retaliation can take different forms depending on the industry and the nature of an employee’s job. In the retail industry, where managers often control schedules, shifts, sales opportunities, and commissions, retaliation may include cutting an employee’s hours, removing preferred shifts, reducing commission opportunities, or assigning undesirable schedules after an employee makes a sexual harassment complaint. While these actions may appear to be ordinary scheduling decisions, the circumstances surrounding them may raise concerns about unlawful retaliation.
Employees experiencing retaliation after a harassment complaint in retail may benefit from speaking with a California employment attorney. An experienced attorney can review the timing and circumstances of the employment changes, evaluate available evidence, and help employees understand their rights and potential legal options.
What to Include in a Sexual Harassment Complaint to Your Company
If you experience sexual harassment at work, making a clear complaint can be an important step toward addressing the conduct and protecting your rights. Whenever possible, employees should consider making their complaint in writing. A written complaint creates a record of what was reported, when it was reported, and who received the complaint. Employees should also follow any reporting procedures outlined in their employer’s workplace policies or employee handbook.
A sexual harassment complaint should provide enough information for the company to understand what happened and investigate the situation. Consider including the following:
- A description of the conduct: Clearly explain what happened, including the specific comments, messages, physical conduct, or other behavior that you believe constitutes sexual harassment.
- Names and positions: Identify the person or people involved and, when relevant, their positions or relationship to you.
- Dates, locations, and approximate times: Provide as much detail as possible about when and where the incidents occurred.
- Witnesses: Identify coworkers or other individuals who may have witnessed the conduct or have relevant information.
- Supporting documentation: Preserve relevant texts, emails, direct messages, photographs, or other communications that may support your report.
- The impact on your workplace: Explain how the conduct affected your ability to perform your job or contributed to an inappropriate or hostile work environment.
- A clear statement that you are reporting sexual harassment: Make it clear that you are bringing the conduct to the company’s attention and want the employer to take appropriate action.
California employers have obligations concerning workplace harassment complaints. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers are required to take reasonable steps to prevent and correct discriminatory and harassing conduct. California regulations also require covered employers to conduct a timely, impartial, and thorough investigation when they receive a complaint alleging harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. The investigation should be conducted by qualified personnel and should be appropriate to the circumstances of the complaint.
After submitting a complaint, employees should keep a copy of the report and relevant supporting documentation for their own records. If the complaint was made verbally, consider creating a written record afterward that summarizes what was reported, when the conversation occurred, and who was present.
Documenting the complaint can become particularly important if negative employment actions occur afterward. For example, if an employee reports sexual harassment and is subsequently subjected to reduced hours, undesirable shifts, discipline, demotion, or termination, records showing when the complaint was made can help establish the timeline of events. Employees should also preserve documentation of any significant changes to their employment after making a complaint, including schedules, pay records, emails, text messages, and communications with management or human resources.
Common Forms of Harassment: Cutting Hours
How Reduced Hours Can Become Retaliation
In the retail industry, an employee’s schedule can have a direct impact on their income and ability to maintain their job. Managers may have significant control over how many hours an employee works, which shifts they receive, and which sales opportunities are available to them. While employers generally have flexibility to make legitimate scheduling decisions, reducing an employee’s hours because they reported sexual harassment may constitute unlawful retaliation.
Not every reduction in hours is necessarily retaliatory. Retail businesses may change schedules for legitimate reasons, including staffing needs, seasonal fluctuations, changes in business operations, or an employee’s availability. The circumstances surrounding the change, however, can be important when determining whether a scheduling decision may have been motivated by retaliation.
Temporal proximity—the timing between a protected complaint and a subsequent adverse employment action—may be relevant evidence of retaliation. For example, an employee who consistently works 30 hours per week may report sexual harassment to management and then suddenly receive only 10 hours per week shortly afterward. If the employee’s hours were reduced soon after the complaint without a clear or consistent business explanation, the timing may raise concerns about whether the schedule change was retaliatory.
Reduced hours can also have consequences beyond an employee’s regular paycheck. Reduced work hours retaliation in California may result in lost wages, fewer opportunities to earn commissions or bonuses, reduced access to lucrative shifts, and fewer opportunities to interact with customers or advance within the company. For employees who depend on consistent hours to support themselves or their families, these changes can create significant financial hardship.
Employees should therefore pay attention to what changed after they made a harassment complaint. A sudden scheduling change may be particularly concerning when it is accompanied by other negative treatment, inconsistent explanations from management, or evidence that similarly situated coworkers continued receiving their usual hours.
What Evidence Can Help Show Retaliation?
If you believe your hours were reduced in retaliation for reporting sexual harassment, documentation can help establish what happened and when. Consider preserving records that show your schedule and working conditions both before and after your complaint.
Useful evidence may include:
- Schedules before and after the complaint: Keep copies of work schedules showing how many hours and which shifts you received before reporting harassment compared with your schedule afterward.
- Texts, emails, and other communications: Save communications with managers, supervisors, human resources, or coworkers concerning your complaint or subsequent scheduling changes.
- Documentation of conversations: Write down when you spoke with management about your schedule, what was discussed, who was present, and how the company responded. If management provided a reason for reducing your hours, document that explanation.
- Evidence of different treatment: Identify coworkers in similar positions who continued receiving regular or more desirable schedules after your complaint.
- A timeline of events: Record the date you reported the harassment and the dates when your hours, shifts, responsibilities, or other working conditions subsequently changed.
The timing, inconsistent explanations, and different treatment surrounding a scheduling decision may be relevant when evaluating a retaliation claim. For example, if management initially gives one reason for reducing an employee’s hours and later provides a different explanation, that inconsistency may warrant further examination. Similarly, if an employer claims that business needs required a reduction in hours but other employees in comparable positions did not experience similar reductions, that difference may provide additional context.
Keeping detailed records does not by itself establish that retaliation occurred. Employers may have legitimate reasons for changing an employee’s schedule. However, preserving evidence can help an employee, and potentially an employment attorney, evaluate the circumstances surrounding the decision and determine whether the available facts support a retaliation claim.
How to Find the Right Sexual Harassment Attorney for You
If you believe your employer retaliated against you after you reported sexual harassment, consulting with an attorney experienced in California employment law can help you understand your rights and potential legal options. An attorney can evaluate the circumstances surrounding your complaint and determine whether subsequent changes to your employment may support a retaliation claim.
When looking for a retail employment attorney, consider whether the attorney has experience handling sexual harassment and workplace retaliation cases involving retail employees. Retail workplaces can present unique circumstances because managers may control employee schedules, shifts, commissions, sales opportunities, and other working conditions. An attorney familiar with these issues can better understand how changes to an employee’s schedule or responsibilities may affect their employment.
When speaking with a prospective attorney, consider asking about their experience with:
- Sexual harassment claims.
- Workplace retaliation claims.
- Wrongful termination.
- Employment discrimination.
- Wage and commission disputes.
- Scheduling-related employment disputes.
It can also be helpful to bring relevant documentation to an initial consultation. This may include your sexual harassment complaint, work schedules from before and after the complaint, pay stubs, commission records, emails, text messages, and other communications with managers or human resources. A clear timeline of what happened can also help an attorney understand the relationship between your complaint and any subsequent employment actions.
An experienced attorney can review the circumstances surrounding your complaint, evaluate the evidence available to you, explain how California employment law may apply, and discuss potential legal options. They can also help you understand what additional documentation or information may be important to your case.
Finding the right attorney is not only about experience. It is also important to work with someone who will listen to your concerns and take the time to understand the specific circumstances of your workplace. An initial consultation can give you an opportunity to ask questions, discuss what happened, and determine what steps may be appropriate for moving forward.
Conclusion
Workplace retaliation does not always involve firing an employee. In the retail industry, retaliation can potentially take the form of cutting hours, changing schedules, removing preferred shifts, reducing commission opportunities, or assigning undesirable hours after an employee reports sexual harassment. Although employers may have legitimate reasons for making scheduling decisions, changes that occur after a harassment complaint should be evaluated in the context of the circumstances surrounding the decision.
California law provides important protections for employees who report sexual harassment. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employees are protected from retaliation for engaging in legally protected activities, including reporting or opposing workplace harassment. Employers are also required to take reasonable steps to prevent and correct workplace harassment and to investigate complaints appropriately. These protections are intended to ensure that employees can raise concerns about unlawful workplace conduct without facing punishment or other adverse treatment for doing so.
If your working conditions changed after you made a sexual harassment complaint, consider documenting what happened and preserving records that show the differences between your employment before and after the complaint. Work schedules, pay records, emails, text messages, and other communications can help establish a timeline. The timing of the changes, explanations provided by management, and treatment of other employees may all be relevant when evaluating a potential retaliation claim.
California employees should not have to choose between reporting workplace harassment and protecting their livelihoods. If you believe you have experienced retaliation after a harassment complaint in retail, consulting with an experienced California employment attorney can help you understand your rights and determine whether you may have a legal claim.
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