Act 100: the grounds you cannot be discriminated on at work, and what you can recover

It is the general employment discrimination statute in Puerto Rico and the one protecting the most grounds. Our employment discrimination guide explains the Department of Labor complaint route; the Act 69-1985 guide covers sex discrimination in detail. This is the full list of grounds Act 100 protects, with the amounts that can be claimed and — the most overlooked part — the rule that freezes the limitations period while the complaint is being processed.

Any employee or job applicant. “Employer” includes every natural or legal person who employs workers or employees, and the chief, officer, manager, official, agent, administrator, superintendent, foreman, steward, agent or representative of that person; it also includes Government of Puerto Rico agencies or instrumentalities operating as private businesses or enterprises. The law also reaches labor organizations and joint labor-management committees controlling apprenticeship, training or retraining programs.

• That the employer’s, labor organization’s or joint committee’s action was by reason of one of the grounds the law protects.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The list of protected grounds, in full

   Age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, social or national origin, social condition, political affiliation, political or religious ideas; being or being perceived as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking; being military, ex-military, serving or having served in the United States Armed Forces, or holding veteran status; and having protective hairstyles and hair textures regularly associated with particular race and national origin identities. That last ground is among the most recent and least known.

2. 2

   Step 2: “Being perceived as a victim” counts too

   The law protects both someone who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking and someone perceived as one. The condition need not be real for discrimination based on it to be prohibited.

3. 3

   Step 3: Marriage to another employee, and its accommodation

   It is a discriminatory practice for the employer to commit those acts because a person is married to an employee of their business, and it applies both to applicants and to employees who marry each other. The law opens a valve: where a clear conflict of functions arises from the marital bond that substantially and adversely affects the business’s operation, the employer is obliged to make a reasonable adjustment or accommodation in duties. That practice applies to businesses with fifty (50) or more employees, and the determination considers the size of the facilities and number of employees, the org chart, hierarchy and chain of command, the business’s physical needs and the specific difficulties the marriage would raise.

4. 4

   Step 4: Job ads have their own article

   It is illegal for any employer or organization to publish or circulate — or allow to be published or circulated — advertisements, notices or any other form of dissemination denying employment opportunities, directly or indirectly, to all persons equally on those grounds, or establishing limitations excluding any person on them. For age, the text adds the phrase “without just cause.”

5. 5

   Step 5: What the court can order, with figures

   Against the employer: civil liability for a sum equal to double the amount of damages caused; or for a sum of no less than five hundred ($500) and no more than two thousand ($2,000) dollars, at the court’s discretion, if pecuniary damages cannot be determined; or double the damages if under five hundred dollars. In addition, a misdemeanor punished with a fine of up to five thousand ($5,000) dollars, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ninety (90) days, or both. In the civil judgment the court may order the employer to reinstate the worker and to cease and desist from the act. Against a labor organization the civil amounts differ: no less than one hundred ($100) and no more than one thousand ($1,000) dollars where pecuniary damages cannot be determined.

6. 6

   Step 6: The rule that saves the clock: the complaint interrupts it

   It is the most practical part of the whole law. When a discrimination complaint is filed at the Department of Labor and Human Resources, the one-year limitations period for bringing a court action is interrupted upon notice of the complaint to the employer or respondent, provided the notice occurs within that period. The period is further suspended or frozen while the complaint continues to be processed at the Department and the respondent has not been notified of the Secretary’s determination. If while it is being processed the complainant asks to withdraw the complaint or states they do not wish to continue, the period begins anew from the date the Secretary notifies the parties of their determination. In other cases, the period is interrupted by an extrajudicial claim, by filing the court action, or by the employer or their authorized agent acknowledging the debt.

7. 7

   Step 7: Where and how to claim

   The Court of First Instance and the District Court have concurrent original jurisdiction in cases arising under this law. Civil claims may proceed by ordinary action or through the complaint procedure of Act No. 2 of October 17, 1961. Claims of several workers or applicants against a common employer or common labor organization may be joined in a single action. The Secretary of Labor may sue on their own initiative or at the instance of one or more workers, and any interested party may intervene. The judgment against the employer or labor organization imposes costs and a reasonable sum never less than one hundred ($100) dollars for attorney’s fees, if the lawyer is not from the Department of Labor.

The Secretary of Labor and Human Resources is charged with overseeing compliance with this law, and is authorized to carry out investigations and inspections on their own initiative or upon a complaint filed by a person, with power to hold public hearings, summon witnesses under warning of contempt and require documents. The complaint route is explained in our employment discrimination guide. For sex discrimination in particular, Act 69-1985 has its own, more detailed guide.

• Believing the grounds list is short: it includes veteran status, being perceived as a violence victim, and protective hairstyles.
• Thinking you must be an actual victim: the law also protects someone perceived as one.
• Dismissing the job ad: it has its own article and its own illegality.
• Letting the year run without notifying the complaint to the employer: the interruption depends on that notice within the period.
• Withdrawing the complaint without knowing the period runs again from notice of the Secretary’s determination.
• Confusing the amounts: against the employer they are $500 to $2,000; against a labor organization, $100 to $1,000.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos (DTRH)

  Departamento del Trabajo

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Labor and Human Resources

  DTRH

  www.trabajo.pr.gov