Let’s say you are tired of your current position and want to try something new with the same employer. You apply for a job transfer, and you are turned down. Then you find out that other people were able to make the move more easily. If those other people are of a different race or sex or other protected classification, can you file a discrimination claim under Title VII? In the past, in some Circuits, you couldn’t do it unless you could show that the denial caused you “objectively tangible harm.” However, in Chambers v. District of Columbia, the D.C. Circuit recently decided that the additional requirement of that harm was not supported by the language of the statute.
The plaintiff, Mary Chambers, worked in the D.C. Office of the Attorney General for over 20 years. She sought numerous transfers to different units in the office but never got the job. She ended up filing a charge of sex discrimination with the EEOC claiming that similarly situated male employees had been granted transfers like the ones she had been seeking.
The district court applied a 1999 D.C. Circuit case, Brown v. Brody, in which the court held that the denial or forced acceptance of a job transfer is actionable under Title VII only if the employee could prove he or she suffered “objectively tangible harm.” Under this standard, the district court stated that even if the denial of her transfers had been motivated by sex discrimination, Chambers had not proven the...
The National Board of Directors of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) hereby alerts the general public to a growing pattern of impersonation, misrepresentation, and the unau...