If you suspend an employee with pay, is that an adverse employment action? Funny you should ask as the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion this week on this very subject. In this case, a former congressman sued his former employer, Legal Services Alabama, claiming that his suspension with pay during a pending investigation was race-based and a partial cause of his eventual resignation.
Plaintiff had been serving as the Executive Director of Legal Services Alabama, a nonprofit firm providing legal services to low-income individuals. In 2017, LSA’s Executive Committee voted to suspend him, with pay, pending an investigation into complaints about actions he took without board approval and allegations of a hostile work environment. After informing him of the suspension, LSA posted a security guard outside the building and hired a political consultant to handle any PR issues. Plaintiff then informed the board he was going to resign.
Plaintiff filed suit against the LSA alleging that he was discriminated against because he is African American. He claimed that past high-ranking employees who were white had engaged in worse misconduct and received more favorable treatment.
LSA moved for summary judgment stating that Plaintiff had not been subjected to an adverse employment action (as he was suspended with pay) and that he was not constructively discharged. The district court agreed on both counts and dismissed the case.
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