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The Employer Handbook BlogCould an anonymous complaint about COVID-19 spawn a sex-based retaliation claim?
Winning a retaliation lawsuit against an employer isn’t easy. Continue reading
Articles Posted in Retaliation
By the time she made it to court, her discrimination and retaliation claims were D.O.A.
An individual who wants to bring federal disability discrimination and retaliation claims against an employer can’t just go right to court. No, courts would choke with employment lawsuits.
Instead, she must first exhaust her administrative remedies at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by filing a charge of discrimination. But there’s a little more to it than that. Continue reading
Hold up! Is there an “HR manager” exception that allows employers to retaliate against HR?
Last night, I read this recent decision from a three-judge panel on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. It involves a human resources manager who claimed that her current employer fired her after it learned that she had earlier given deposition testimony in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against her former employer.
Assuming this to be accurate, did the current employer violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Continue reading
Two different termination letters lead to one discrimination lawsuit and zero luck for the plaintiff
The general rule in employment law is that an employer’s inconsistencies and contradictions breathe life into discrimination claims.
But there are some exceptions.
Continue reading
Without this key element, you can kiss that retaliation claim goodbye
A plaintiff asserting a retaliation claim against his employer must establish three elements:
- A protected activity (such as complaining about discrimination),
- A materially adverse employment action (such as a termination of employment), and
- A connection between the first and second element (i.e., an employer fired him for complaining about discrimination)
Is this the worst batch of retaliatory emails I’ve ever read? Maybe.
Print this post if you want to discourage your managers and supervisor from putting dumb sh*t in emails that might one day get shown to a jury and end up costing your business a mint. Continue reading
“Liberal” Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring. Here are three times he joined “conservative” justices when deciding employment law cases.
Yesterday, several news outlets reported that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of this term. President Bill Clinton appointed Justice Breyer in 1994. Justice Breyer sided with OSHA and HHS in the vaccine mandate cases earlier this month. Indeed, Breyer is considered one of the more “liberal” justices.
But did you know that some (or all) of the “conservative” justices joined in significant employment law decisions that Justice Breyer authored? Continue reading
The EEOC updated its COVID-19 guidance again with new information on retaliation
Image Credit: finger pointing by BomSymbols from the Noun Project
While nerds like me were flooding LinkedIn with status updates about Sixth Circuit this and OSHA ETS that, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was hosting a secret “virtual dialogue” with the employer Illuminati about retaliation updating its COVID-19 Technical Assistance to include additional information on retaliation.
Anything 🤯? Continue reading
Three federal agencies want to end retaliation by hosting a “virtual dialogue” with employers next week.
Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced a joint initiative to raise awareness about retaliation issues when workers exercise their protected labor rights. Continue reading