Your Legal Questions Answered

You have several legal claims that are raised by your fact pattern. I'll touch on a few. A hostile work environment can be a violation of both federal and Colorado law. In 2023, Colorado enacted the Protecting Opportunities and Workers’ Rights (POWR) Act, which is a new Workplace Harassment Law.

Under the POWR act, you no longer have to prove hostile work environment, and instead can prove that your supervisor engaged in "any unwelcome physical or verbal conduct" based on your membership in a protected class. A protected class includes disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, national origin, ancestry and marital status. The conduct must be offensive to you as well as to a reasonable person in the same protected class. Here, you clearly did not welcome the supervisor's conduct. If a reasonable person would also agree that the conduct was offensive, and the conduct based on your status in a protected class, you may have a legal claim against the supervisor and the company.

The POWR Act lists the factors courts can consider, including the number of individuals engaged in the conduct, the location of the conduct, power differentials, and the use of stereotypes and slurs. The Act also clarifies that a single incident may rise to the level of harassment, and conduct that was at one time welcome may become unwelcome.

You of course can still prove hostile work environment under federal law. In addition to a hostile work environment, you could also have a claim for constructive termination or retaliation based on your supervisors actions after you reported safety violations. The law is well established in this area. Colorado law recognizes claims for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy. This includes situations where an employee is terminated for reporting illegal or improper conduct, such as safety violations, to either company management or law enforcement officials. Such actions are considered whistleblowing. Here, it sounds like you may have such a claim.

To establish a claim for wrongful termination in Colorado, the employee must demonstrate that: (1) the employer directed the employee to perform an illegal act or prohibited the employee from performing a public duty or exercising an important job-related right; (2) the action directed by the employer would violate a specific statute related to public health, safety, or welfare, or would undermine a clearly expressed policy; (3) the employee was terminated as a result of refusing to perform the act; (constructive termination would be sufficient) and (4) the employer was aware that the employee's refusal was based on a reasonable belief that the act was unlawful.

I recommend that you speak to a lawyer to evaluate your claim. If you would like to speak to one of our employment attorneys please contact us at (303) 688-0944.