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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Retaliation
A pay raise is not discriminatory and eye rolls don’t create a hostile work environment, mmkay?
Reading yesterday’s post about religious accommodations and Flying Spaghetti Monsters may have had you rolling your eyes like — who is that old guy? Tony Danza?
Just kidding, I know my 80s TV. It’s Corbin Bernsen.
I see your EEOC Charge and raise you a defamation lawsuit
An even worse idea, my friends, is admitting that you still drink Zima filed a defamation lawsuit in response to an employee’s complaint to the EEOC.
A Chairperson supposedly tried to get her direct report to marry her son. Her son the company CEO.
YASSSSS!!!!
Oh, thank you blogging gods for this generous clusterfunked bounty. Please accept this offering from your humble minion.
How the heck do you accommodate the religious beliefs of hundreds of employees?
Yesterday, I had one of those moments. You know the ones.
For me, it was when a client asked me when I was going to blog about the Muslim workers in Colorado who were denied prayer breaks and, then, allegedly fired for protesting.
So, I did what any self respecting employment-lawyer-blogger would do: I Googled “Muslim Prayer Employee Protest Colorado Fired,” and I promised a client-inspired Wednesday post.
Knife-wielding monkeys may be retaliatory; but, standard severance provisions are not.
Last year, I discussed (here) a case in which the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an employer for retaliation under Title VII. Now, retaliation is the most common claim employment discrimination claim. But, what made this particular claim unusual was the EEOC’s attack on the employer’s use of knife-wielding monkeys to coerce settlement fairly common settlement provisions that you guys probably use in your severance agreements (e.g., a general release, a non-disparagement obligation, a confidentiality provision, a covenant not to sue, and a cooperation clause).
Late last year, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in. And it didn’t end well for the EEOC.
Denying an employee’s attempt to rescind her resignation may be…retaliation?!?!
I picture it happening something like this. But, with inflatable sumo suits, and some Spandau Ballet, or maybe Pantera, and yeah…
Firing an employee for complaining on Facebook about discrimination = retaliation
And when the employer practically admits as much at a deposition = hella-stupid retaliation
Can a company fire its HR Manager for taking the employee’s side in a discrimination complaint?
Well, you can forget about that “place at the table.” That’s for sure.
***ducks thought-leader mashed potatoes and change-agent stuffing***
The latest NLRB decision could provide many fired employees with a huge second bite at the apple.
In a decision issued last week (here), the National Labor Relations Board ruled that “the filing of an employment-related class or collective action by an individual employee is an attempt to initiate, to induce, or to prepare for group action and is therefore conduct protected by Section 7 [of the National Labor Relations Act].” So, for example, if you fire someone for filing a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated employees, then you’ve violated both the FLSA and the NLRA.
Yes, if an employer actually retaliates in that manner, shame on the company. However, two things pique my interest here:
- An administrative law judge concluded that the employee was fired because he filed a FLSA collective action. By this time, in the federal court action, the parties had barely scratched the surface on taking discovery and the federal court had yet to certify a class. (Ultimately, the FLSA action was settled amicably in federal court, without any finding of liability).