There once was an employer in Racine. With a manager whose antics were racy. The court said, “You lose!” Now, tell everyone the news. And if you disobey, it’ll cost you big money. *** Although I feel rhyming “Racine” with “racy” was pure Shakespeare, I’m fairly certain that Edward Lear’s…
Articles Posted in Retaliation
Yikes! NJ discrimination victims may tack on a whistleblower claim
Consider this scenario: Employee believes he is being discriminated against. Employee complains to Human Resources. HR investigates, but is unable to substantiate the employee’s claims. Employee nonetheless sues his employer, alleging discrimination. While the lawsuit is pending, the employer fires the employee for reasons it claims are unrelated to the…
File this Supreme Court decision under “R” for RETALIATION
In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court held yesterday that a company may not retaliate against an employee who orally “filed a complaint” about perceived Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations. After the jump, I’ll break down this decision, just what it means to orally file a complaint, and the…
Supreme Court okays third-party-retaliation claims
The United States Supreme Court today in Thompson v. North American Stainless, LP ruled that an employer violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if it takes action against an employee who is in the same “zone of interest” as another employee who files a Charge of Discrimination with…
How to reduce retaliation claims in six easy steps.
The EEOC reported this week that retaliation charges outpaced race discrimination charges at the agency during fiscal year 2010. This is the first time that retaliation charges (under all statutes) surpassed race discrimination charges at the EEOC, making retaliation charges the most frequently type of charge filed at the EEOC…
Harassment victims don’t get a free lunch
A big part of my job as a labor and employment attorney is providing anti-harassment training to employees and supervisors. First, I help them identify what constitutes unlawful harassment in the workplace. Then I walk them through how to report and address it. Here, I emphasize that retaliation against a…
Employee fired for Facebook comments sues her employer
I was reading an article in the Gwinnett Daily Post — yeah, that’s right, the GDP — and it starts out like this… BUFORD — When Buford City Schools bus driver Michele Threlkeld finished her final route on the last day of school, she reported to her supervisor’s office, as…