Takeaway: Employers should closely scrutinize employment decisions made by supervisors concerning employees who have submitted complaints against them.
After two male supervisors decided not to renew a female physician’s employment contract the year after she complained about confrontations with them, an appeals court upheld a retaliation verdict against the hospital and one supervisor and permitted her to pursue a claim against the other supervisor.
The plaintiff was a female rheumatologist who worked for the New York University (NYU) Langone Health system. After working for NYU for almost five years without any disciplinary issues, in September 2019, the plaintiff had a dispute about her office space with the site director for NYU Langone’s Lake Success location on Long Island, N.Y. The site director visited her office and told her that NYU had hired a new rheumatologist who would need to use her office two days a week. The plaintiff told the site director that she needed to review her employment contract with her attorney because she did not think her contract allowed NYU to require her to share an office.
At that point, the site director’s demeanor changed. According to the plaintiff, he started flailing his arms, pointing at items in her office, and saying that all of it belonged to NYU and that they owned her. She claimed that, under his breath, he then uttered a gender-based slur.
The plaintiff lodged a complaint with HR the day after the incident. She lodged...
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