Louisville Employment Lawyer

It depends on where you file, and Kentucky gives you an unusual option. Complaints to the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission and the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights are generally due within 180 days, and an EEOC charge within 300 days. Under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, you can also skip the agencies and file directly in state court, generally within five years. Check your job application and any employment agreement, though. Some employers shorten that period by contract, and courts have enforced those terms.

Yes. Louisville Metro’s discrimination ordinance applies to employers with as few as two employees, far more workplaces than Kentucky law (eight employees) or federal law (15) reaches. It also covers characteristics state law doesn’t, including sexual orientation and gender identity, along with hairstyle protections. Complaints go to the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission within 180 days.

Yes, at employers with 15 or more employees. The Kentucky Pregnant Workers Act requires reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions, including lactation, unless the accommodation would cause undue hardship. Examples in the law include more frequent or longer breaks, time off to recover from childbirth, seating, a temporary transfer to less strenuous work, light duty, a modified schedule, and a private space other than a bathroom to express breast milk. Employers also have to tell employees these rights exist.

Not because of the leave. If your leave is protected by the FMLA, your employer can’t use it as a reason to fire, demote, or discipline you, and you’re entitled to return to the same job or an equivalent one. An employer can still end your employment for a reason truly unrelated to the leave, such as a layoff that would have affected you anyway, which is why timing and documentation matter. If you don’t qualify for the FMLA, time off for your own disability may still be protected as a reasonable accommodation.

It almost always includes a release of claims, and the release is usually what the employer is paying for. Signing typically waives your right to bring discrimination, retaliation, or wrongful termination claims, including claims under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, which you could otherwise generally file in court within five years. If you’re 40 or older, federal law gives you at least 21 days to consider the agreement and seven days to revoke it. Reviewing it before you sign is how you find out what you’d be giving up.

Report it through your employer’s complaint process, in writing if you can, and keep a copy. A written report puts the employer on notice and makes it harder to claim later that it didn’t know. Keep your own record of dates, what happened, and who saw it. Sexual harassment is prohibited by the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, by federal law, and, at employers with as few as two employees, by the Louisville Metro ordinance. Retaliating against you for reporting is a separate violation.