Labor & Employment Law

Title VII protects relative and friends from retaliation

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Title VII protects relative and friends from retaliation
Thompson v. North American Stainless, CA6, Opinion 08a0129p.06

Eric Thompson?s fiancée filed a discrimination charge with the EEOC against their common employer, North American Stainless, alleging that her supervisors discriminated against because of her gender. Three weeks later North American terminated Thompson. Thompson sued, contending that the anti-retaliation provisions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protect a related or associated third party from retaliation under such circumstances.

The Sixth Circuit agreed.

The court said to rule otherwise would permit employers to retaliate with impunity for opposition to unlawful practices, filing EEOC charges or otherwise participating in such efforts, so long as that retaliation is only directed at family members and friends, and not the individual claiming to have been the victim of unlawful retaliated because he or she engaged in a protected activity.

The full text of the opinion is posted on the Internet at:

http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/08a0129p-06.pdf

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).