• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Retaliation

A series of small slights can add up to one huge retaliation case

04/01/2008
It’s hard to prove discrimination, but much easier to prove retaliation. That’s a lesson more and more employers are learning the hard way. The fact is, anything negative you do to an employee who has complained about alleged discrimination may amount to retaliation …

Hofstra football assistant says jocks were jerks

04/01/2008
An assistant for Hofstra University’s football team has filed a federal lawsuit charging that she was “subjected to offensive and sexually graphic movies in the presence of howling and taunting male students” and “locked in a bathroom by a group of male students” …

Age discrimination is hard to prove—But retaliation isn’t

04/01/2008
One of the hardest discrimination claims for employees to prove is age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Retaliation is a much easier case to make. All the employee has to prove is that he complained about discrimination and was punished for doing so …

Firing shortly after follow-up FMLA care may be retaliation

04/01/2008
As more time passes after an employee takes FMLA leave, courts grow less and less likely to link an adverse employment action to taking leave. That means employees have a harder and harder time proving that being fired, for example, was retaliation for exercising their FMLA leave rights. But be careful …

Stick to the facts when firing employee who complained of discrimination

04/01/2008
Employers say the darnedest things at the wrong time. Take, for example, a termination meeting. This is not the time to be defensive and anticipate the employee’s discrimination charges. Instead, stick with the hard facts: why the company has decided that termination is necessary …

All by itself, a lower evaluation score isn’t retaliation

04/01/2008
Nowadays, many employees who file discrimination complaints follow up later with retaliation claims. That doesn’t mean employers have no power to manage the workplace after an employee files a discrimination complaint. The key is to be levelheaded, reasonable and fair, especially at evaluation time. You aren’t required to reward discrimination complaints with inflated evaluations …

Double-Check discharge rationale if employee participated in FLSA action

04/01/2008
Employees who file or participate in an FLSA lawsuit are protected from retaliation. That’s why it’s important to carefully consider any disciplinary action and make certain that the decision is fair, consistent and based on solid business reasons …

FGCU settles age discrimination case

04/01/2008
Florida Gulf Coast University may pay as much as $650,000 to settle an age and gender discrimination lawsuit with Johnny McGaha, former dean of the college of professional studies. When he was demoted to a professorship in 2005, McGaha, 64, said the move was retaliation …

Document timing of employee complaints

04/01/2008
When it comes to retaliation, timing is everything. It’s impossible for an employer to retaliate against an employee for complaining about alleged harassment or discrimination before the employer knows about it. That’s why it’s so important to note for the record the date and the exact time HR or a supervisor got a harassment or discrimination complaint …

Making a frivolous complaint is not protected activity

04/01/2008
When employees file frivolous complaints, it doesn’t count as a protected activity. That means an employee can’t set up his employer by filing a nonsensical discrimination claim and then waiting for some perceived punishment or imagined slight to create a retaliation lawsuit. Courts seem to be catching on to that common practice …