Takeaway: In a retaliation case, temporal proximity between an employee's protected conduct and termination is not enough by itself to prove pretext.
A longtime employee of an insurance company failed to show that his termination was the result of age discrimination or retaliation for expressing disagreement with the outcome of a sexual-harassment investigation, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The company presented legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the firing—improper cellphone use and the alleged theft of food from a company facility—and the employee failed to show that the employer's asserted reasons were a pretext for discriminatory or retaliatory motivation. As to the retaliation claim, the court stressed that temporal proximity between an employee's protected conduct and their termination is not enough by itself to prove pretext.
The employee worked for a commercial property insurer for about 35 years. At the time of his termination, he was president and CEO of one of the insurer's corporate subsidiaries. In 2015, an employee of the subsidiary filed a sexual-harassment complaint against her supervisor. HR investigated but declined to discipline the supervisor.
The employee told HR that he disagreed with the outcome of the investigation. In February 2018, the employee alleging harassment filed a second complaint, resulting in a second investigation. The employee told HR that he had seen the supervisor who was the subject of the complaint acting...
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