“I received a notice from the Department of Employment and Fair Housing (DFEH) stating an ex-employee made a claim of discrimination. I know the claim isn’t valid but what do I do with the letter I received?”
My HR Survival Tip
The DFEH is a free resource employees can use to file certain types of claims. It’s great you believe the claim isn’t valid… but can you actually prove it?
Regardless of whether or not the claim itself is valid, you must respond to the letter. The letters I’ve seen from the DFEH weren’t just a heads-up. This is a letter including several questions about your policies and practices, plus requiring you to submit a lot of backup documentation.
The documentation piece may include things like 2 years’ of timecards for all employees and/or all disciplinary documentation to all employees over the past 2 years, etc. In one way or another, creating your response will usually take hours and hours.
Either get legal advice immediately or put together a draft with your responses and documentation and then have an employment law attorney review everything before you submit it. The type of claim can make a big difference on how much time and effort the response may take.
Then you submit your response and wait. And wait. Sometimes you might get an email with additional questions. Sometimes you might not hear anything for months. It even seems there are times when you never hear back from the DFEH. During this wait you are keeping your fingers crossed that, based on your response, they haven’t found any reasonable cause to pursue it further.
No matter how wild or untrue you may find the claim, the DFEH’s letter needs a serious, legal response.
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