South Florida Personal Injury Blog

Broward employment discrimination attorney Andrew Alitowski finds that, even in diverse Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade Counties, discrimination against workers on the basis of national origin remains a problem. National origin discrimination can be perpetrated by any employer – even one who is a recent immigrant himself, although from a different country. The nationality of a worker, or the nationality of her parents, has no relation on her ability to complete the requirements of her job.

One way in which national original discrimination manifests itself is by the delegation of certain job tasks for specific individuals. For example, if an employer declined to allow an Aruban-American employee to perform a job task – such as deliveries – which other, similarly positioned employees performed, and did so because he did not want to pay for an accident caused by a “hot-headed Aruban driver,” the employee is experiencing discrimination on the basis of his national origin. The employee is being denied the opportunity to perform the same job functions as his peers, as well as possibly earn higher wages. National origin discrimination could also take the form of workplace harassment. If other workers or supervisors make disparaging jokes or comments about an employee’s national origin, or the origin of his or her parents, it may be discrimination on the basis of national origin. Fort Lauderdale injury attorney Alitowski believes that stereotypes about traits or another country’s culture fuel national origin discrimination.

Discrimination on the basis of key characteristics associated with national origin is common. For example, certain cultural norms, physical appearance, and linguistic characteristics are not sufficient bases for discrimination by an employer. For example, an employer should not refuse to hire a person who speaks English well simply because she dislikes his Haitian accent.

The United States is a country with a rich tradition of immigration. Even immigrant workers who are not naturalized or natural born United States citizens are protected by the national origin provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law also prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, and sex. Likewise, workers are protected from discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or ability to become pregnant and disability.