Houston Employment Law Attorney

Defending Your Legal Rights in the Workplace

You depend on your ability to work, to hold a job and to be able to earn the income you need in order to support yourself and your family, but in many situations, it can seem like your livelihood and financial stability are subject to the whims of an employer who is not necessarily looking out for your best interests.

Employers often treat their employees unfairly, whether by denying a pay raise, passing you over for a promotion, or even firing you for reasons that you do not agree with or fully understand. There is little or nothing you can do about unfair treatment on the part of your employer, but if he or she has violated your legal rights under state and federal employment law, you can take action to sue for monetary damages.

The fact is that workers in Houston and throughout Texas and the rest of the nation have the protection of powerful legal rights. These rights provide a much-needed safeguard against a wide variety of discriminatory and abusive practices on the part of employers, such as sexual harassment; harassment on the basis of religion, race, age, gender, national origin; and other attributes that are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In addition, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) limits the number of hours that an employee may be required to work in a week, establishes a minimum wage that an employee is entitled to receive, requires employers to pay time and a half for overtime work, and protects minors from being employed in oppressive child labor. Further, employees enjoy whistleblower protections against employer retaliation for speaking out about fraud or other illegal activities in the workplace and can even recover monetary damages by helping the government sue for fraud.