Takeaway: Suspicious timing can be an essential element of a discrimination or retaliation claim, but the temporal proximity of an equal employment opportunity protected activity and a materially adverse employment action does not generally establish a causal connection without other evidence. However, when the time frame is sufficiently brief, a court may find that the temporal proximity alone is sufficient to show causation at the initial stages of a claim.
The short interval between an employee's request for a medical accommodation and his termination was sufficient to show causation in the early stages of his discrimination and retaliation claims, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The court also held that a jury could reasonably conclude from the evidence that the employer's reasons for firing the employee were a pretext crafted after having already decided to terminate him because of his accommodation request.
The employee was an outside sales representative for a company that sold used cars at auction to auto dealerships. He had been hired primarily to recruit new business (hunting) in an area where the company lacked a sales presence, although his duties also included maintaining existing customer accounts (farming). In his role, the employee typically traveled 3.5 days per week.
In 2019, the company began merging its sales team with that of another company owned by the same parent organization. The merged company decided to divide the outside sales...
By Victor Ahiuma-Young The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has introduced stricter advertising rules for Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, warning operators against false claims, misleading ...