Retaliation

Retaliation According to the EEOC

the situation Retaliation claims continue to be a favorite of employees and are the most frequently alleged bases for discrimination.  Employers should be aware of the ever present risks of such claims.  So what is the EEOC’s take on what constitutes retaliation?

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Can’t I Do Something About These Unfounded Discrimination Claims?

the situation Your employee brings a claim of discrimination against your company which you believe is completely meritless. If you pursue a malicious prosecution charge against her, could you face a claim of retaliation?

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Use of Staffing Companies and Joint Employer Status

the situation Your company has a contract with a staffing company whereby the staffing company provides you with employees for particular positions.  These contract employees enter into employment agreements with the staffing company.  These employment agreements specifically state that if a company contracting with the staffing company to provide services asks that the employee be […]

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Transgender Employee Fired for Clear Policy Violation—Is Employer Still At Risk For Title VII Claim?

the situation An employee informs you that she is going through a gender transition and then a few months later you catch her sleeping on the clock. After you terminate her (just like you have terminated others who engaged in similar conduct), she claims that you discriminated against her based upon her sex in violation […]

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Shifting explanations result in employer liability in Title VII retaliation claim

So a supervisor offers a couple of different explanations for action taken against an employee—how much does that matter? Maybe quite a bit, according to an opinion issued by Judge Jackson last week. See Mohammed v. Central Driving Mini Storage, Inc., Case No. 2:13cv00469 (E.D. Va. 2015). In this case, the court awarded a former […]

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The Second Circuit agrees–an oral complaint to a supervisor may support a retaliation complaint under the FLSA

Back in 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that an oral complaint can serve as the grounds for a retaliation claim under the FLSA. See Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., 131 S. Ct. 1325 (2011). But in Kasten, the oral complaint was made to a government agency and so the question still remained—what about an […]

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Look out—possibly more hostile work environment claims ahead

Following the recent ruling of the Fourth Circuit after an en banc rehearing, employers may face more claims for hostile work environment. In Boyer-Liberto v. Fountainebleau Corp., No. 13-1473 (4th Cir. May 7, 2015), the Fourth Circuit overturned a prior decision by its own panel and the district court and found that an extremely serious […]

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The stats are in—retaliation continues to top the list of charges filed with the EEOC

On February 4, 2015, the EEOC released its data regarding 2014 charges. In fiscal year 2014, 88,778 charges of workplace discrimination were filed with the EEOC. Apparently, the number of charges filed was actually down a little from recent fiscal years, but the EEOC attributes this, at least in part, to the government shutdown during […]

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Walmart Sanctioned For Destroying Evidence in Title VII Retaliation Case

What happens if a critical piece of evidence has been destroyed—even if allegedly unintentionally and in the course of regular business? In a recent decision out of the Northern District of Georgia in a Title VII and ADEA retaliation case, the court found that the destruction of the evidence created a presumption that the stated […]

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District Court Has Jurisdiction over Retaliation Claim Related to Prior Charge, Even Prior Charge that was Untimely

The Fourth Circuit recently ruled that the district court properly ruled that it had jurisdiction over a claim of retaliation in violation of Title VII asserted by an Old Dominion University professor, even though the retaliation claim was not contained within her initial EEOC charge and that charge was, in fact, untimely. Hentosh v. Old […]

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