This week, I am on vacation. The Supreme Court didn’t get my memo. Fine. But, I’m not putting down my beer to write this post. So, you get a one-handed rundown of the two employment-law decisions the court issued yesterday.
Pardon my typos after the jump…
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DISCLAIMER: Since I’m getting the fodder for my post from RadarOnline (via the National Enquirer), consider the sources, and remember that what you are about to read are allegations. Plus, Ms. Deen’s team subsequently told Entertainment Tonight that Ms. Deen does not condone or find the use of racial epithets acceptable. So make of this what you will and don’t shoot them messenger…
Remember back when I reported here that a former employee of one of celeb chef Paula Deen’s restaurants had accused both Deen and her brother of race discrimination and sexual harassment? You’d expect that Ms. Deen would cast aside these “allegations” — especially the ones about her using the N-word and having black waiters perform as slaves at a wedding party — as slanderous accusations.
You’d expect that wouldn’t you?
Just another Friday here at the ole Handbook. Oh, get your head out of the gutter! This is a family blog.
(Y’all have families, right?)
For serious, today’s lede isn’t just gratuitous, there is an employment-law connection here.
School teacher, Lawrence Smizer, is a regular Facebook wordsmith:
To all my family that fought my sister tooth and nail over some BULLSHIT (And you know who you are) FUCK YOU BITCHES!!!! HE IS GOING HOME WHERE HE BELONGS!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHA AHAH HAHAH HAAH
Smizer was Facebook friends with two co-workers. They dimed him out to the school and Smizer was fired. So, he sued for reverse-race discrimination.
Reverse-race discrimination, mmm-kay. How do you think it worked out for him?
Find out after the jump…
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Maetta Vance, the only African-American working in her department at Ball State University, claimed that she was subjected to both race discrimination and retaliation. Vance later sued and lost because she could not establish employer liability, which, in turn, depended on whether the alleged harassment was perpetrated by supervisors or coworkers.
Employers have an affirmative defense when the supervisor harassment does not result in a tangible employment action. If, however, the harassing supervisor fires, suspends, or takes some other similar action against the victim, it’s check mate.
In instances of co-worker harassment, where tangible employment actions wouldn’t be at issue (because the harassing co-worker wouldn’t have that power), to prevail on a discrimination claim, the plaintiff must show, among other things, that the employer has “been negligent either in discovering or remedying the harassment.”
Helene Tyrrell worked as a line chef at a jockey club in Arkansas during the Winter of 2010. She claimed that immediately after she started working, and pretty much throughout her employment, the n-word was bandied about like you and I would say “hello” and “goodbye.” However, only once was the “n”-word hurled in her direction.
But it wasn’t the n-word. No, that’s discriminatory.
Rather, according to the court in Tyrell v. Oaklawn Jockey Club, the “comment directed at Plaintiff and one other co-worker happened after the kitchen crew nearly mused getting breakfast out one Sunday. The comment, was according to Plaintiff, ‘I told you niggas we could get this done. I told you we could do this. Y’all my niggas.'”
To all the haters of social-media policies:
If nothing less, the social-media policy reminds employees that if they act the fool online, it may impact their standing in the workplace, and, ultimately, cost them their jobs.
Some employees, however, are just so ignorant. Thus, I doubt that any employer policy will impact how they behave online.
Two despicable examples from this past week follow after the jump…
Take a few minutes to read this decision. It will blow your mind.
Here’s the long and short of it:
Three black employees sue for race discrimination claiming that they were subjected to a racially-hostile work environment. The court actually did the math:
Back in 2010, Douglas Clayton had a rough Summer.
In August, Mr. Clayton was employed as a deckhand on a boat in Louisiana — that is, until one of his white co-workers allegedly raised a wrench to Clayton and told him to get his “stupid mother f**king n**ger ass” off the boat. Mr. Clayton promptly complained to Human Resources and was transferred to another of the defendant’s boats.
In September, Mr. Clayton again reported to Human Resources that his new co-workers continued to say “n**ger,” among other comments, around him. Allegedly, HR responded by telling Mr. Clayton to “lighten up.” Allegedly, later that day, after telling one of his co-workers to stop using the word “n**ger” on the boat, that co-worker attacked Mr. Clayton from behind.
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