What constitutes employment discrimination based on gender?
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What constitutes employment discrimination based on gender?
I am a male who was recently hired for employment at the same place my girlfriend works at. She told me they were hiring so I went forward and filled out an application. Last Monday I was hired along with another girl and was to begin my training and file paperwork that Saturday. On Friday afternoon I received a phone call saying they could not hire me because they were fully staffed. This week I learned they hired another girl. Is there anything I can do about this?
Asked on August 4, 2011 Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Discrimination based on gender or sex is indeed illegal, and it's equally illegal to discriminate against a man as it is against a woman. If you were denied the position due to your gender, then you may have a legal cause of action, and could pursue it either by going to the state department of labor (free, but slower, and not guaranteed to act on your behalf) or by retaining your own employment attorney (more expensive, but you get what you pay for). Note that while they can't not hire because you were a man, if there was some other gender-neutral reason--e.g. that they decided that it would be bad to have a boyfriend-girlfriend pair working together--that would be legal; it's only discriminating on account of gender or sex that is prohibited.
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