Employees are discriminated against for many reasons, including their age, the color of their skin, whether they are male or female and their religious beliefs. Recently an Indiana court was asked to consider whether or not an employee was discriminated against because she asked for a protective order against an abusive ex-boyfriend. While the two may seem unrelated at first, there is a definite connection.
A female employee at Pitney Bowes requested a protective order from the court to keep her abusive ex-boyfriend from having any contact with her. When it was granted, she told her employer about it. Her employer put her on paid leave for about two weeks to determine how to handle the situation. When the employee called for an update on November 1, 2011, she was told she had been fired. Her supervisors did not deny that her firing was based on the protective order; rather they said that was the exact reason she was let go. They said they had to consider the safety of their other employees.
The fired employee’s attorney said he tried to negotiate with the company to get her job back, but it wasn’t until a discrimination lawsuit was filed that Pitney-Bowes offered to find the Indiana employee a position in a different location. The agreement has not yet been finalized. The lawsuit claimed gender discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because the majority of people who seek protective orders are women; so a company that discriminates against employees that request protective orders is essentially discriminating against women.
Women’s advocates fear that this potential discrimination will keep abused women from filing protective orders. They may feel they have to stay in an abusive relationship to keep from losing their jobs. Fifteen states currently have laws that prevent employees from being fired for seeking legal protection from an abuser, but Indiana is not one of them. The state does have a law that compensates women with unemployment benefits if they have to quit their jobs because of an abusive or violent domestic situation. Unfortunately, the state of Kentucky does not have either of the above laws to help women who were or are in an abusive relationship and want to get out. Hopefully, that will change in the near future.
If you find yourself in an abusive or dangerous situation with a boyfriend or spouse, do not hesitate to take legal action to protect yourself. First, no job is worth being abused or living in fear. Second, an experienced Indiana or Kentucky employment law attorney can assist you with any repercussions from your employer, from negotiating an arrangement to filing a workplace discrimination lawsuit or wrongful termination suit. The attorneys at Charles W. Miller & Associates in Kentucky are qualified to help Indiana and Kentucky workers with any employment issues they may have.
Source:
Victims of abuse in Indiana can face double pain: loss of job; The Indianapolis Star; John Tuohy; May 20, 2012