Retaliation is a thorny problem. There are a multitude of laws at the federal, state and local level that are intended to protect employees’ rights in the workplace. But those protections amount to little if employees are unable to assert those rights without jeopardizing their standing with their employer or suffering other adverse consequences. As a result, virtually every law granting employees legal protections in the workplace additionally prohibits employers (and sometimes others) from retaliating against employees who assert their legal rights.
Broader Standards and Greater Publicity Warrant Education
Early in my legal career, before the internet was widely known and used, the conventional wisdom was that we educated supervisors and managers on their obligation not to retaliate, specifically in response to complaints of harassment or discrimination, but in training sessions attended by the rest of the workforce, we did not talk too much about retaliation. We did not want to give anyone any ideas on how to file a legal claim. A seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2007, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Co. v. White, adopted a broad definition of retaliatory behavior under Title VII, and the conventional wisdom changed as the floodgates started to open. Last year, nearly 56 percent of all charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission included a retaliation claim, whereas less than 30 percent of the charges filed before the Burlington Northern...
MANILA, Philippines — The petition filed by Vice President Sara Duterte seeking to stop impeachment proceedings against her should be junked by the Supreme Court (SC) due to fraudulent claims, Bic...