Retaliation

Could Changing Your Mind About a Promotion After an Employee’s Use of FMLA Leave Equal Retaliation?

Posted on June 6, 2018

the situation An employer has talked with an employee about possibly putting him in a new sales position.  Before that can happen, the employee develops a medical condition which necessitates him being out of work for a month and taking FMLA leave. When he returns, he informs the employer that he will not be able […]

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Does Employee’s Falsification of Employment Application Automatically Defeat Retaliation Claim?

Posted on August 30, 2017

the situation An employee complains that he is being harassed based on his sexual orientation and the fact that his partner is African American. Not long after he lodges this complaint, the employer discovers that although the employee stated on his job application that he graduated from community college, he had not actually graduated, but […]

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Is it Retaliation to Fire A Supervisor For a Fabricated Sexual Harassment Report?

Posted on June 28, 2017

the situation One of your supervisors reports that another employee has been sexually harassing several women working under him. Your HR director interviews each of these women and none back up this story. You then terminate the reporting supervisor based on her false report. Is this retaliation in violation of Title VII?

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FMLA Retaliation Claim Even Where Actual Decisionmaker Didn’t Know About Use of Leave?

Posted on May 3, 2017

the situation An employee requests and is approved for FMLA leave based on a mental health condition.  While she is out, she accumulates a backlog of work. According to her supervisor, after she returns, she continues to have performance problems, including not meeting certain metrics and otherwise just not meeting his standards.  Based on a […]

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Calling Your Boss a Nasty Motherf**ker is Protected Activity?

Posted on April 26, 2017

the situation An employee has a problem with the way he has been treated by a supervisor and decides to share his disdain for him on Facebook—calling the supervisor a “nasty motherf**ker” and also saying “F*ck his mother” and “f*ck his whole family!”  Is this not a proper basis for termination?

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Despite Serious Documented Performance Issues, Reference to Medical Leave May Mean FMLA Retaliation Claim

Posted on March 22, 2017

the situation An employee begins working as a sales consultant and from the beginning, has serious performance issues. She is given a number of warnings and even placed on an improvement plan. After she receives a final warning threatening termination if her performance does not improve, she submits a request for FMLA leave for some […]

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Firing Six Weeks After Charge Enough to Show Retaliation?

Posted on March 8, 2017

the situation An employee files an EEOC charge, claiming she was discriminated against based on her race. Because of some ongoing performance issues, you put her on a performance improvement plan three weeks later. Following the issuance of another written warning, you decide to terminate her, about six weeks after her charge was filed. Can […]

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Can Firing an Employee for a False Sexual Harassment Claim Be Considered Retaliation?

Posted on February 15, 2017

the situation An employee lodges a number of complaints against a certain supervisor, claiming that he has made some offensive and inappropriate remarks of a sexual nature.  You interview some of the other employees who were purportedly present when these statements were made and none of them back up the complaining employee’s story. The supervisor […]

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Emotional Distress Damages Allowed in FLSA Retaliation Claim?

Posted on December 28, 2016

the situation An employee claims that not only was he not properly paid overtime owed to him, but that when he complained about it, his employer retaliated against him—can he really claim damages based on pain and suffering?

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Supervisor Faces Individual Liability Under the FMLA

Posted on September 14, 2016

the situation After an employee at a public agency takes a number of weeks of approved FMLA leave, a supervisor begins criticizing her performance harshly (and at times, unjustifiably).  The supervisor ends up giving her a written warning for engaging in conduct that is not generally even disciplined.  When the employee later makes another mistake […]

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