HR managers aren’t exempt from the federal law banning retaliation against workers who report discrimination, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday.

Marie Patterson, former HR manager at Georgia Pacific, sued the Atlanta-based paper products company in 2018 for retaliation. She claims her supervisors fired her just days after learning that she had recently been deposed in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against a former employer, a Texas hospital operator.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits retaliation against workers who have either “opposed any practice” barred by the law or participated in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

However, Georgia Pacific argues that Patterson was fired for poor performance and excessive absences.

In 2020, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock in Mobile, AL dismissed Patterson’s lawsuit, ruling that because she had testified against her former employer, she couldn’t hold Georgia Pacific liable for retaliation. The judge also said that HR managers aren’t protected when they oppose discrimination in the course of their job duties, only if they file personal complaints.

The U.S. appeals court rejected Beaverstock’s claims and has revived the lawsuit for further proceedings, Reuters reported. A three-judge panel argued that the exception didn’t exist in the text of Title VII, which broadly protects workers who oppose any unlawful practice, “not only those allegedly committed by their current...

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