Oregon Law Against Discrimination

Oregon law declares discrimination to be a “menace” against the “institutions and foundation of a free democratic state.” Consequently, Oregon law bans discrimination against people because of age, color, race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, disability or family status.

United States law also protects us against discrimination. In some areas, Oregon law is more inclusive, covering smaller employers than are covered by federal law. There are other differences, too. For example, for age discrimination, federal law protects people age 40 and older. Oregon law protects people age 18 and older, which means an employer cannot discriminate against someone because he or she seems too young.

Oregon’s law against discrimination controls employers AND labor unions.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve received more calls concerned about “reverse discrimination.” By that, callers refer to favoritism not to white males, but to Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and women. My answer is that “discrimination is discrimination.” If the Mexican-American boss prefers Mexicans to U.S. Citizens or to Salvadoran citizens: that’s unlawful. If the bar owner fires a man because he wants a woman behind the bar: that’s unlawful.

More subtle is what I call discrimination based on family needs. Multiple laws provide rights to people who must help family members. There is the basic law against discrimination based upon marital status. Also, there are family medical leave laws. We are seeing that some people, who can no longer put in the overtime because they have responsibilities at home, are sometimes the first laid off. That’s not lawful.

Discrimination can be in hiring, firing and other terms and conditions of employment. Who gets the best shifts? Who gets the overtime hours? Who is getting harassed? Harassment and hostile work environment claimsare merely another form of harassment.

If you feel like you’ve been fired or mistreated based upon unlawful discrimination, feel free to call me at 503-665-4234.