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Retaliation

Transfer to slower-climbing position can equal retaliation

07/08/2009

Be careful if you transfer an employee who filed a discrimination complaint to another position. Even if the new job provides the same benefits and pay, it may look like retaliation if the position comes with fewer advancement opportunities.

Texas law school professor alleges age and gender bias

07/08/2009

Rosanne Piatt, an instructor at St. Mary’s University School of Law, recently filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC and the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division. She claims the university discriminated against her on the basis of her age and gender.

Warn bosses: ‘Getting even’ can be retaliation

07/08/2009

It’s natural for supervisors and managers to become upset when employees accuse them of some form of discrimination. Tell them they must resist the impulse to strike back. It inevitably makes the situation worse. Many forms of managerial punishment may end up being construed as retaliation—which can be far easier to prove than the alleged discrimination that started all the trouble.

Acting against worker who has already complained? Have someone new make decision

07/08/2009

Employers have faced more retaliation claims ever since the U.S. Supreme Court made such cases easier to win by ruling that retaliation is an action that “might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.” While the federal courts have placed some limits on what constitutes a retaliatory act, they continue to struggle with the question.

‘Unethical’ isn’t enough under Minnesota whistle-blower law

07/08/2009

Employers can’t fire employees in retaliation for “blowing the whistle” on illegal activities. But Minnesota’s Whistleblower Statute doesn’t apply to workers who complain about practices they simply think are unethical.

Did zeal to stop discrimination lead to retaliation?

07/08/2009

Ellen Bahr was a supervisor for Capella University and regularly had to evaluate workers in her department. One black woman was performing far worse than the rest of the workers, so Bahr placed her on an improvement plan. Even then, the employee’s work remained below standard …

Warn managers: Don’t fall into retaliation trap

07/06/2009

Courts take retaliation seriously. In fact, they may hesitate to say an employer discriminated against an employee based on race, sex, age, disability or some other protected characteristic, but they’ll clamp down hard if they have the slightest suspicion that the employer punished the employee for merely alleging discrimination.

Public employee sounds off, court weighs in: Letter to editor may not be protected speech

07/06/2009

Government employees are protected from retaliation for speaking out on matters of public importance. That doesn’t mean, however, that every letter to the editor is an exercise in freedom of speech. Indeed, if the letter is about a specific workplace problem between the employee and a supervisor, chances are a court won’t find that to be a First Amendment issue.

An easy way to head off retaliation claims: Keep past performance reviews

07/06/2009

Before you decide to throw out old evaluations and files, consider this: An employee may sue and refer back to those evaluations from memory. If she remembers nothing but positive performance reviews until a recent poor appraisal (engineered, she believes, to get her fired), you’ll need to be able to show her employment history wasn’t as rosy as she remembers.

Beware issuing completely negative performance reviews

07/06/2009

Supervisors often come down hard on underperforming employees during regular performance reviews. But sometimes, completely negative appraisals can come back to haunt you if the employee later sues. Juries are more likely to believe that you terminated the employee fairly if you include some positive feedback.