Retaliation

Court won’t budge on 45-day bias claim deadline

12/29/2016

Federal employees have just 45 days to file a complaint about discrimination in the workplace.

Maintain old records on past employees–they could pay off during future lawsuits

12/20/2016

If a former employee unsuccessfully applies for a new job opening with you, your previous records can justify why you declined to rehire him or her.

Portland, Texas restaurant settles retaliation case with DOL

12/12/2016

A Mexican restaurant outside Corpus Christi, Texas, has settled a Department of Labor lawsuit alleging it retaliated against a whistleblower employee.

Shield promotion committee from previous complaints

12/08/2016

Make sure your promotion decisions aren’t tainted by irrelevant information—such as whether an employee has filed discrimination complaints in the past.

If you ignore whistleblowers, prepare to pay

12/08/2016

Two employers have recently learned this lesson the hard way.

Reporting racial slurs is protected activity

12/06/2016

A worker reporting that a supervisor used a racially charged slur is protected from retaliation.

Treat cases independently when employee being disciplined files complaint of her own

11/29/2016

Sometimes, an employee facing discipline will fight back with allegations of her own. Handle those allegations separately from any pending disciplinary action, and be sure to carefully document each step of both processes.

Win one part of a case, lose on retaliation

11/14/2016

In a complex case, don’t assume that because one part of the claim is clearly meritless, the whole case will go away.

She said, he said, she said: Counterclaim isn’t retaliation

11/08/2016

A federal court has refused to entertain overturning a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that says filing a counterclaim to a lawsuit or even a separate lawsuit against an employee isn’t the basis for a retaliation claim.

Employee’s poor performance trumps his retaliation claim