Filing Discrimination Charges? EEOC vs FEHA

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal government agency where employees must first file charges for the following common employment discrimination matters if they chose to utilize federal remedies in their employment discrimination case:

• Age Discrimination
• Disability Discrimination
• Gender Discrimination (Sex Discrimination)
• National Origin Discrimination
• Pregnancy Discrimination
• Race Discrimination
• Religious Discrimination
• Sexual Harassment
• Unequal Pay

The federal remedies relative to EEOC filings for employment discrimination, job terminations, and harassment for prohibited employment actions are generally less favorable than the remedies for the same legal violations under California law. Accordingly, our labor lawyers generally advise against seeking redress for employment discrimination claims through the EEOC.

Federal law requires the employee be employed by an employer who has more employees than state laws covering the same discriminatory acts. In order to utilize the EEOC, the complaint filed with the EEOC must be filed in a shorter period of time than an employment discrimination complaint utilizing California employment laws. The damages obtainable through federal discrimination laws are less favorable than the damages obtainable through California discrimination laws, and so are the cases interpreting the coverage of federal employment discrimination laws.

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Obtaining a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC is a much harder task than obtaining one from California’s Fair Employment and Housing Office. The EEOC may refuse to close an investigation they will not get to for years, or not properly investigate. Our firm has also experienced the EEOC requiring myriads of unnecessary papers and repeat requests for them to close their alleged investigation, which never started, in order for our firm to file the employment discrimination case in court. Because the EEOC refuses to close an investigation so an employment lawyer can begin a court lawsuit for discrimination, our EEOC lawyers have often had to appear at useless mediations before the EEOC where the employer offers a few thousand dollars.

One of the only times our EEOC lawyers advise filing charges at the EEOC is if you were employed by a religious organization. California FEHA does not employment discrimination committed by religious entities.

If you filed EEOC charges on your own, our EEOC lawyers can become your attorneys and take the steps to get your case out of the EEOC and into the court system. Our private law firm has handled over 1,000 employment discrimination cases. Although our office does not have any affiliation with the EEOC, we have specific counsel with experience before the EEOC.

Please call us to speak to one of our EEOC lawyers about your workplace lawsuit. (818) 783-7300. To read case samples on discrimination click here Los Angeles Discrimination Cases