Wisconsin Discrimination Legal Questions

In Wisconsin, the Fair Employment Act prohibits discrimination based on an arrest record. The Equal Rights Division for the Department of Workforce Development will investigate and enforce violations of the act. The EEOC may look at your claim as a possible race discrimination issue, but it is a federal agency and has no power to enforce the Wisconsin law. I recommend that you immediately contact the Equal Rights Division to ensure that the EEOC dual filed your complaint--meaning that it sent a copy of your complaint to the ERD for action. Also, ask the ERD to investigate your complaint for arrest record discrimination. Don't delay, as there are limits the ERD could impose on amending your complaint for this purpose. I have more information on our website, www.celcwi.com, about this claim that you may find informative. We do reguarly represent people in these claims throughout Wisconsin. To look for attorneys that may represent you, you may want to visit www.nela.net. This is a national organization of employment attorneys that represent employees. There is a membership directory online to help you. Gordon Leech... Read More

In Wisconsin, discrimination based on a conviction record or arrest record is prohibitted unless the employer can show that the conviction and the job are substantially related. This means that the job would put a person in a situation where there is a substantial likelihood of reoffending. When there is a pending arrest, the employer may not refuse to hire you based on the pending arrest unless this "substantial relationship" between the charged offense and the job is satisfied. If a substantial relationship does exist, then the employer may essentially put your application in a pending status until your charges are resolved. So if the substantial relationship does not exist, an employment may not hold the pending charges against you in its employment decision. The Equal Rights Division, Department of Workforce Development, for Wisconsin can take a complaint for a decision that violates this law. You must file it promptly, though, as you only have 300 days from the discriminatory act to do so.... Read More