Retaliation
Punishing workers for opposing discrimination, seeking accommodations, or participating in fair-employment proceedings.
In plain terms
California law protects workers who push back against unlawful discrimination or harassment, ask for a disability or religious accommodation, or take part in a fair-employment complaint or investigation—even if they never win a separate discrimination case. If your employer hit back with a firing, demotion, cut in hours, or other serious fallout tied to that protected activity, that can be retaliation. Proving it often means showing what you did, what changed at work afterward, and whether punishment was a meaningful reason for those changes.