Best Discrimination Attorneys in Harrisburg, PA

Retaliation can arise when an employee complains about discrimination and the employer thereafter takes wrongful disciplinary action against the employee. Retaliation can be further established by ongoing harassment of the employee or disciplinary action/termination arising shortly after the employee complains.

Yes. For employers having 50 or more employees, the Family Medical Leave Act allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave due to family or health-related issues, such as childbirth, care of a newborn, or a personal health condition. The employee may take either continuous or intermittent leave. If the employee elects to take FMLA leave, the employer generally must allow the employee to return to the same or an equivalent position before the expiration of the leave. FMLA is one of the strongest protections for eligible employees to retain their jobs (and should be considered in conjunction with most leave requests).

Most states (including Pennsylvania) are governed by the general rule of at-will employment. Although at-will employment generally means that an employer can discipline or fire an employee for any reason or no reason at all, there are several exceptions to the rule including wrongful discipline or termination resulting from discrimination, retaliation, or harassment, and other exceptions, such as whistleblowing. Additionally, employees have some job protection if they are covered by an employment or collective bargaining agreement.

A whistleblower claim may arise when an employee is disciplined after reporting illegal or fraudulent conduct at the workplace. Examples include reporting fraud or misuse of government funds or reporting safety and health violations under a federal law known as OSHA.

Pennsylvania Law generally favors granting UC benefits unless the employee engages in "willful misconduct." That term may include various types of conduct including failure to comply with the employer's written policies. It is more difficult for employees to prevail if they resign (rather than being fired). Those employees must show that, due to intolerable work conditions, they had no meaningful alternative but to resign.