Category: Retaliation

Quirky Question # 238, No Laughing Matter – Company Found Liable for Wrongfully Terminating Independent Contractor’s Agreement

Quirky Question # 238, No Laughing Matter – Company Found Liable for Wrongfully Terminating Independent Contractor’s Agreement

Question: My company relies on independent contractors, over whom we don’t exert control. They often joke around with each other. I’m not liable for employment discrimination if I terminate one of them after they complain about another, right?

Quirky Question # 183, Retaliating Against an Applicant Who Previously Sued Under the FLSA

Quirky Question # 183, Retaliating Against an Applicant Who Previously Sued Under the FLSA

Question: We recently made an offer to an applicant for an important job at our company. The offer was conditioned on a satisfactory background check and her passing our standard drug test. She had no problem with the drug test. But, when we did the background check, we discovered that she had sued her former employer for violations of the...

Kasten v. Saint-Gobain: Supreme Court Rules on Oral FLSA Employee Complaints

Kasten v. Saint-Gobain: Supreme Court Rules on Oral FLSA Employee Complaints

Kasten v. Saint-Gobain: Supreme Court Rules That Oral Employee Complaints Are Afforded FLSA Retaliation Protection Introduction On March 22, 2011, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., __U.S.__, No. 09-834 (Mar. 22, 2011), holding that oral complaints are sufficient to support retaliation cases under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”)....

Associational Discrimination: Supreme Court Decides Thompson v. North American Stainless

Associational Discrimination: Supreme Court Decides Thompson v. North American Stainless

On January 24, 2011, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Thompson v. North American Stainless, LP, No. 09-291. The Court unanimously (8-0, with Justice Kagan recusing herself) reversed the 10-6 en banc decision from the Sixth Circuit. The Supreme Court held that Title VII’s anti-retaliation provision reached a Charging Party’s fiancé. The decision’s significant practical ramifications are...

Retaliation (again), Quirky Question # 136

Retaliation (again), Quirky Question # 136

Quirky Question # 136: I know you’ve written a number of analyses of retaliation claims, but our company has a new twist to this subject.  One of our employees filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming sex discrimination.  In her Charge, she identified several other employees, none of whom has ever complained about any unfair...

Associational Gender Discrimination, Quirky Question # 118

Associational Gender Discrimination, Quirky Question # 118

Quirky Question # 118: One of our male employees (call him Mr. X) recently complained that a supervisor at our company was sexually harassing Mr. X’s girlfriend, also one of our employees.  We advised him that we would investigate.  Apparently, however, our investigation was not moving sufficiently fast for him.  When Mr. X encountered the supervisor in routine work settings, he...

Managing the Chronic Complainer, Quirky Question # 117

Managing the Chronic Complainer, Quirky Question # 117

Quirky Question # 117: We have an employee who has become a “chronic” complainer.  She initially complained to her manager that her annual bonus was incorrectly calculated and that she believed the alleged error was because of her sex and/or age.  The manager referred the complaint to Human Resources, which thoroughly reviewed the bonus calculations for that department and concluded...