Retaliation: Plaintiffs' Lawyers Benefited

Retaliation by employers against workers suffered a blow from the U.S. Supreme Court in a major decision handed down in June 2006. The Court's decision now unifies heretofore divergent circuit court rulings on what retaliation lay within the scope of the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White (05-259), the Court held that the retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act "does not confine the actions and harms it forbids to those that are related to employment or occur at the workplace." The Court also held that "the anti-retaliation provision covers only those employer actions that would have been materially adverse to a reasonable employee or applicant."

The Court's view was that the anti-discrimination provision of Title VII seeks a workplace where individuals are not discriminated against because of their status, while the anti-retaliation provision seeks to prevent an employer from interfering with an employee's efforts to secure or advance enforcement of the Act's basic guarantees.

The Court has eased the standard by which courts will assess whether adverse actions taken by an employer constitute impermissible retaliation.

The Court determined that "materially adverse" means that "the employer's actions must be harmful to the point that they could well dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination."

Making clear that "[a]n employer can effectively retaliate against an employee by taking actions not directly related to his employment or by causing him harm outside the workplace," the Court included such retaliation among those forms prohibited by Title VII.

An anti-retaliation provision limited to employment-related actions would not deter the many forms that effective retaliation can take. Hence, such a limited construction would fail to fully achieve the anti-retaliation provision's "primary purpose," namely, "[m]aintaining unfettered access to statutory remedial mechanisms."

The Court's ruling states: "[W]e conclude that Title VII's substantive provision and its anti-retaliation provision are not coterminous. The scope of the anti-retaliation provision extends beyond workplace-related or employment-related retaliatory acts and harm. We therefore reject the standards applied in the Courts of Appeals that have treated the anti-retaliation provision as forbidding the same conduct prohibited by the anti-discrimination provision and that have limited actionable retaliation to so-called 'ultimate employment decisions,'" (decisions such as firing, suspension, demotion).

The Court's ruling has handed plaintiffs' discrimination and retaliation attorneys a new, stronger tool.

Los Angeles Attorney

Finding an attorney in the Los Angeles region requires contacting and interviewing a number of attorneys, to determine which attorney is a best fit with your situation.

You will want to check with directories and listings of lawyers to identify prospective law firms to interview.

Important questions to ask include whether the fee will be by the hour or a contingent percentage of damages recovered. Also, whether an initial consultation will be without charge or whether there will be a fee.

With these things in mind, you can better search for a Los Angeles attorney.

Houston Attorney

Finding an attorney in the Houston region requires contacting and interviewing a number of attorneys, to determine which attorney is a best fit with your situation.

You will want to check with directories and listings of lawyers to identify prospective law firms to interview.

Important questions to ask include whether the fee will be by the hour or a contingent percentage of damages recovered. Also, whether an initial consultation will be without charge or whether there will be a fee.

With these things in mind, you can better search for a Houston attorney.

Atlanta Attorney

Finding an attorney in the Atlanta region requires contacting and interviewing a number of attorneys, to determine which attorney is a best fit with your situation.

You will want to check with directories and listings of lawyers to identify prospective law firms to interview.

Important questions to ask include whether the fee will be by the hour or a contingent percentage of damages recovered. Also, whether an initial consultation will be without charge or whether there will be a fee.

With these things in mind, you can better search for an Atlanta attorney.

Legal Images

Wrongful Termination -- Taking steps to protect yourself. Here you will learn about the real world strategies and tactics to resist and counter various forms of wrongful termination and to seek legal redress for wrongful termination.

Wrongful Dismissal: Were You Fired Wrongfully?

Wrongful termination occurs when you are fired in circumstances that violate public policy. Oftentimes, the firing may involve a pretext reason for why your employer fired you. Sometimes, you may have been forced to quit. Sometimes, managers having the decision-making authority over you may have made public statements that evidence their personal discriminatory bias, on which unspoken basis they fired you.

Here is some useful detail for you to consider:

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Wrongful Termination: Were You Wrongfully Terminated?
By Carl Mueller


Wrongful termination can be a devastating experience that not only affects your career in the short term but can also affect your ability to get back on your feet and find a new job.

Firstly, your specific job and the employment contract that you signed and the local employment laws that govern where you live may largely determine whether or not you are a victim of wrongful termination.

[Editor's note: Mr. Mueller writes several times about an employment contract, but for most people in most states, the employment relationship is known as employment at will. Under the at-will doctrine, either party in the employment relationship can terminate the relationship at will, without notice or reason. Many employers misinterpret employment at will to mean they can indulge their discriminatory bias and fire someone in circumstances contrary to public policy, such as being too old or too disabled. The result may be wrongful termination.]

For example, if you signed a confidentiality agreement and there is verifiable proof that you violated this aspect of your agreement, this would most likely be a legitimate example of being fired for cause ie. the company had the right to fire you.

Another example would be if you were caught stealing from your employer.

But what if the circumstances regarding your termination aren’t as clear?

Often when an employee is fired, it might be on the basis of a perceived problem or disagreement of opinion such as your inability to do the job. Here are some other typical reasons that people get fired where a case of wrongful termination may exist:

* A personal conflict with your boss and/or colleagues that results in you getting fired.
* A breach of contract where you are improperly fired for violating part of your contract.
* A downsizing where you are told that your job is being eliminated only to find out that your employer then hires someone to replace you in the exact same position.
* Being fired or forced to quit so that your boss can hire a friend to replace you.
* Sexual harassment ie. you are sexually harassed and when you rebuff the advances or report them, you are fired.
* Discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation, etc.
* You report a wrongdoing in the company and are fired ie. you are a whistleblower.

These are just some of the reasons where a case of wrongful termination might exist. Certainly your specific situation and the employment laws that govern your area of employment may take precedence.

How Can You Minimize The Chances Of Wrongful Termination?

Wherever possible, always document your work and keep hard copies of any emails or other written documentation that positively comments on your work. For example, if you receive a positive employment review from your boss, bring a copy of it home and keep it on file.

[Editor's note: For self preservation, many people keep a just-in-case, off-site file of hard copies of emails that might be significant in the future, in the event they ever might be subject to wrongful termination. Emails have proved repeatedly to be the core evidence in many cases. You can write an email to yourself to document important facts or occurrences and the email header documents the date and time.]

If you receive written praise from peers regarding a project you worked on, keep a copy of it at home.

I'm not suggesting you remove work-related material and take it home with you if it violates your employment contract or if it's the property of the company but keeping a copy of personal materials that you should be entitled to such as a performance review is legitimate especially if your manager gives you a copy to keep.

If you are unsure, ask your manager if you can keep a copy of your performance review at the time it is given to you.

In this case, I suggest taking a copy home with you because in the case of a firing or downsizing, you might not be allowed to take anything out of the office or to access your computer.

As a recruiter, I've seen job searchers use recent performance reviews from their current employer to highlight certain skills or accomplishments they are proud of.

Having written documentation that positively highlights your work track record can come in handy down the line if you need to illustrate your past performance especially if comments being made about you by an ex-employer contradict positive comments that were written about you earlier on.

If you feel that you are a victim of wrongful termination, the first thing you should consider is getting legal advice to properly understand your situation from a legal perspective and whether or not you have a legitimate case.

Carl Mueller is an Internet entrepreneur and professional recruiter. Carl has helped many job searchers find their dream career and would like to help clear up some of the job search myths that exist while helping job searchers avoid common job search mistakes that cost them jobs.

Visit Carl's website to find your dream career: http://www.find-your-dream-career.com

Ezine editors/Webmasters: Please feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your website. Please don't change any of the content and please ensure that you include the above bio that shows my website URL. If you would like me to address any specific career topics in future articles, please let me know.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carl_Mueller

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Technorati tags: wrongful dismissal, wrongful discharge, fired, employment law, human resources, HR, wrongful termination.

Wrongful Termination: 18 Things a Lawyer May Want to See When You Meet

Wrongful termination occurs when you are fired in a way that violates public policy and may include situations where you were forced to resign (called constructive discharge). If your employer fired you, or asked you to resign, or if you quit because you felt working conditions were intolerable, you may have a case for wrongful discharge.

You need to contact a lawyer and schedule an initial conference with him or her. To make that first meeting as fruitful as possible, you need to provide copies of a number of documents for the lawyer to review.

There is a useful list of 18 things your lawyer may want to review presented at:

     http://employment.findlaw.com/articles/2563.html .

A key item for review is a diary or chronology, or a written journal of events, with dates of important employment problems, any opposition you made to employment policies or practices, any participation you may have had in investigation of any discrimination complaint, meetings, and adverse actions taken against you.

If you kept such a journal, good; make a copy. If not, start recreating the series of events from memory, emails, documents, your calendar, and whatever else can help jog your memory. This is done most easily on a computer, either as a table in Microsoft Word or as a modified spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. The advantage of using the computer is that when you remember an event that occurred between two events you already have in the table, you can merely insert a new row into the table and fill in the date and details of the event.

Having copies of documentation for your lawyer to review will help him or her determine if you have been the victim of wrongful termination.

Technorati tags: wrongful termination, wrongful discharge, wrongful dismissal.