Image Credit: https://pixy.org/528010/ I’ve got a hypothetical situation for you. ABC employs Sally. Sally’s father, John, is a third-party vendor who sells widgets to ABC. One day, Sally files a charge of discrimination with the EEOC against ABC, claiming to be the victim of gender discrimination. Eventually, Sally resigns and…
Cskiran / CC BY-SA Good thing I added a few extra servers today, juuuuuuuust in case I had a few extra clicks on this blog post. Last week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals wrote 150 pages (here) to address the retaliation of claims of an HR representative (let’s call…
Joe Ravi / CC BY-SA Last week, on Monday, the Supreme Court issued this age discrimination opinion. The opinion focuses on age bias in a federal government workplace, which is a small portion of folks that read this blog. But, there are a few takeaways for the rest of you.…
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay Technically, they settled for $1.15M. But, that won’t stop me from playing some ‘Lil Wayne. Many of you have good taste in employment law blogs, my ramblings and typos notwithstanding. That’s because you also read Jon Hyman’s Ohio Employer Law Blog. Jon’s blog is a…
Image Credit https://www.jbcharleston.jb.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000273522/ That’s cold. Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced here that it has settled a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed against a fast-food chain. The facts are indeed chilling. According to the EEOC’s suit, a 22-year-old male manager at the store was “forced to…
Downturn Direction Banks Trend Down Symbol Arrow (Maxpixel.net: License to use Creative Commons Zero – CC0) In the context of an employment discrimination lawsuit, when I think about a demotion, I’m also thinking of retaliation. The plaintiff with a disability was also thinking the same thing in this recent federal court…
Image by Christos Giakkas from Pixabay You have an underperforming supervisor in your workplace. Several employees have complained about her work performance and leadership. So, the plan is to fire her. Except, three weeks before you terminate this supervisor’s employment, she complains about discrimination. Can you go through with the…
Image Credit: Photofunia.com (https://photofunia.com/results/5d9aa283089f7ad4978b458c) Earlier this week, I detailed several feeble retaliation claims that a federal court easily brushed aside. Today, I’ll talk about another retaliation claim that almost suffered a similar fate until one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the country breathed new life into it.…
Image Credit: Photofunia.com (https://photofunia.com/results/5d9aa283089f7ad4978b458c) Retaliation is one of the most common employment claims pursued in court. Indeed, it’s the #1 claim individuals make at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A retaliation claim consists of three elements: (1) a protected activity; (2) materially-adverse employment action; and (3) a nexus…
Image by DigitalShards from Pixabay I’ve talked a fair amount recently about retaliation claims (here and here), mostly focusing on timing as the possible link between a protected activity (such as a complaint of discrimination) and an adverse employment action (like a firing). The plaintiffs in those cases were unsuccessful…