News & Analysis as of

Hiring & Firing Protected Activity

Hiring & Firing refers to the process of recruiting, interviewing and offering employment and the process of evaluating performance and dismissing employees. Hiring & Firing is a highly regulated area and... more +
Hiring & Firing refers to the process of recruiting, interviewing and offering employment and the process of evaluating performance and dismissing employees. Hiring & Firing is a highly regulated area and can create tremendous liability for employers who fail to properly adhere to acceptable employment practices. Some of the potential pitfalls in this area stem from discriminatory hiring practices, improper performance evaluations, and retaliatory firings.  less -
Epstein Becker & Green

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Rules That Secretly Recording Co-Workers Dooms Retaliation Claim

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The Tenth Circuit recently reaffirmed that employers may lawfully enforce a policy against surreptitious recordings. In Spagnolia v. Charter Communications, LLC, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit...more

Miller Canfield

Michigan Supreme Court Expands Liability Under Anti-Discrimination Statute; Endorses Third-Party Retaliation Theory

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“Third party” or “associational” retaliation is reprisal taken by an employer against someone other than the person who engaged in “protected conduct.” In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Title VII’s anti-retaliation...more

Epstein Becker & Green

Massachusetts Federal Judge Rules that Protected Activity Does Not Shield an Employee from the Consequences of Engaging in...

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On November 13, 2023, in USA ex rel, Morgan-Lee, et al. v. The Whittier Health Network, LLC, et al., a Massachusetts federal district judge concluded that although the plaintiff engaged in protected activity when she raised...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

False Claims Act Update: A Mid-Year Review (2023)

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The Supreme Court issued a number of headline-grabbing decisions this term on topics like religious accommodation, LGBTQ protections, and consideration of race in college admissions. These decisions are wide-reaching and...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Rejects Retaliation Claim Based on ‘Personal Gossip'

In Johnson v. Global Language Center, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of an employer in a Title VII retaliation claim, where the “protected activity”...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

NLRB Reverses Standard for Firing Employees Who Engage in Labor Confrontations

Last week, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) game of legal tennis continued when it reversed another Trump-era decision involving when employers can take disciplinary action against employees who lose their cool...more

Venable LLP

What the Bleep!?: NLRB Makes it More Difficult to Discipline Employee Outbursts

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On Monday May 1, 2023, the NLRB issued a decision that makes it more difficult for employers to discipline or terminate employees who have engaged in "abusive conduct." This decision, Lion Elastomers LLC II, overturns the...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

Florida District Court Limits Scope of Protected Activity under the FCA

On March 29, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida held that in order to engage in protected conduct under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), a plaintiff must specifically suspect that their employer...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Seventh Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Ruling Against Illinois Employee Who Refused to Participate in Sale of Product Banned in...

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A recent Seventh Circuit decision interpreting Illinois law affirmed the district court’s ruling that an employee’s refusal to engage in activity illegal in New York, but not in Illinois, was neither protected under the...more

Payne & Fears

California Supreme Court Clarifies Burdens of Proof Applicable to Whistleblower Claims

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In response to a certified question posed by the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court on Jan. 27, 2022, resolved a years-long split among California courts by confirming that an...more

Sherman & Howard L.L.C.

Know-Nothing Defense a Winner in Retaliation Cases

A recent case out of the Sixth Circuit, Mangold v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. reminds employers of the importance of keeping an employee’s participation in protected activity on a need-to-know basis as a preventative...more

Hogan Lovells

New York dramatically expands whistleblower protection law with sweeping amendments

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On October 28, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation enhancing the protections available to individuals who claim retaliation for reporting alleged employer wrongdoing. The legislation (S.4394A/A.5144A)...more

Littler

Hold the Phone: Employees Can Bring Common-Law Wrongful Discharge Claims in Oregon for Seeking Legal Advice About Their Employment

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On March 3, 2021, in Rohrer v. Oswego Cove, LLC, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s dismissal of an employee’s common-law wrongful discharge claim for seeking legal advice about her employment....more

Fisher Phillips

Mining MSHA – Discrimination Complaints

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Welcome to “Mining MSHA,” a regular series of posts focusing on mine safety fundamentals – but designed for both new and experienced mine safety professionals. This series will help safety professionals develop their MSHA...more

Fisher Phillips

NLRB Rules That Employers Need Not Tolerate Sexist, Racist, Or Abusive Conduct By Employees Engaged In Otherwise Protected...

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In a critical reversal of Board precedent, the NLRB just unanimously held that employees engaging in abusive conduct in the course of protected concerted activities are not automatically shielded from discipline under the...more

Fisher Phillips

What Schools Should Do If An Employee Refuses To Return To Work Because Of COVID-19

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Given the uncertainty surrounding the spread of COVID-19, efforts to contain it, and ever-changing health and safety guidelines, schools need to act quickly to address not only the current situation but also the new...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

What To Do When Employee Misconduct And Protected Activity Collide?

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Seyfarth Synopsis: When an employee violates company rules or policies, a company is within its rights to respond with appropriate corrective action. How to respond, however, can become complicated when an employee engages in...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

ARB: “Hinting” at Filing a Whistleblower Complaint is Not Protected Activity

On October 31, 2019, the ARB held that an employee who merely “hints” that he or she intends to file a whistleblower complaint has not engaged in protected activity sufficient to invoke the whistleblower protection provision...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

ARB: No Protected Activity where Employee Inadvertently Informed Employer and Only “Hinted” at Filing Whistleblower Complaint

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Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL’s ARB rejected an employee’s SOX retaliation claim where he inadvertently provided information to his employer and only “hinted” that he was filing a SOX-protected complaint. The ARB seems unwilling...more

FordHarrison

The Women of Amazon Studios’ The Boys Offer Lessons on Title VII Retaliation

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Piggybacking off my colleague Tim Reed’s recent post providing the background/plot and discussing employer liability issues in Amazon Studios’ The Boys, I am happy to continue expounding upon the various employment law issues...more

McAfee & Taft

Think twice before you dismiss a cry for help: ADA accommodation request or not?

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You know the scenarios: an employee reports his chair is bothering him; another employee reports the glare of the computer screen is hurting her eyes; and a third employee explains he needs a different office space, better...more

Payne & Fears

Key California Employment Law Cases: June 2019

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This month's key California employment law cases involve EEOC charges, disability discrimination, and meal breaks....more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

For Employers in the #MeToo Era: It’s Not the Harassment Claim, It’s the Retaliation Claim that Gets You

The era of #MeToo has caused employers to hyper-focus on harassment claims. They have fine-tuned their policies, investigated claims more carefully, and acted swiftly and sometimes even in a draconian fashion upon finding any...more

Fisher Phillips

FAQs About Skip-Level Meetings: A Critical Management Tool

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It is never good to put off dealing with a problem employee. Whether it is misconduct, poor performance, or simply an attitude that impairs your team’s ability to work together well, the time to act is now. Waiting to act...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

Alabama Federal Court Denies Motion for Summary Judgement on SOX Whistleblower Claim

On April 2, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama denied a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, finding genuine issues of material fact...more

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