Posted on 06/24/2013 7:18:36 AM PDT by SMGFan
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court says people must be able to hire and fire people to be considered a supervisor in a discrimination lawsuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“The court, dividing along ideological lines, said people qualify as supervisors only if they can take tangible employment actions against the alleged victim.
The issue is an important one because employers are generally liable for racial and sexual harassment by supervisors. Workers file more than 30,000 formal harassment complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission each year.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-24/job-supervisor-harassment-suits-limited-by-u-s-supreme-court.html
As a supervisor for a department in my company, I find this interesting. We have a pretty rigid standard about firing people. Ironclad documentation is a requirement. I, personally, do not have the authority to fire people on my own. I have to take it to MY manager, who then takes it to HR, who initiates the process.
The reason the documentation is so important is so the person can’t come back and sue us for their job back OR claim unemployment. One person last year did try to claim unemployment after being fired. There was one bit of paperwork that was overlooked and that caused the state to award the employee with unemployment bennies. (Side note: Yes, the person in question was one of ‘Holder’s people’.)
I’m thinking of forwarding the article about this decision to my HR director. I wonder what he thinks of it, and if it affects me at all.
Yep. Why this case ever reached the Supreme Court is beyond me.
Every business is FULL of managers that do not have the authority to hire a person or to fire a person.
*sigh*
A whole lot of phony claims of racial, or sexual harassment will never get to court since the employer can’t be held liable.
What a shame.
So now doing your job is harassment and punishment.
However, you're almost certainly correct... Miss Vance (and her attorneys) are likely crummy people who are looking for an unearned lottery payout based on over-playing the Race Card (tm),
As an amateur chef I would reserve the right to even preclude somebody from chopping my veggies if warranted.
Oh, in my early days I spent full shifts busing tables and washing dishes and came home smelling like stale ice cream.
I had an idiot on my crew complain to the office that I was a racist.
The office went into a full witch hunt to find out if I was a racist, calling in each guy on my crew to question them separately.
Finally got around to calling me in to question me.
I asked what it was that I had done that was supposed to be racist.
The office never bothered to ask the guy making the claim all he had to do was say I was a racist.
I told the office they could tell me what it was I was supposed to have done that made me a racist or I was walking.
The supervisor left and went and talked to the guy making the claim. When he came back he said the complaint was dropped and it was settled.
I didn’t drop it. I told him to tell me what it was I was supposed to have said or done or I was walking.
Turns out the guy claimed I was a racist because I wouldn’t let him sleep on the job.
It was his first day and HE BE TIRED so I should have let him sleep.
My stepson, who doesn’t have a racist bone in his body, had finally had it with some of the folks he works with. He said to me, one day, “why is it that black people always seem to have some scam going on the job?”
Every guy he knew that overtly tried to abuse the system and get out of doing work or get paid for time when they were not there was black. Every. Single. One.
It really left a bad taste for him.
Where my wife worked there were a surprising number of people fired over the years she was there. Every one of them deserved it. Three of them took the company to court over it. All three were black and all three lost. It was ridiculous. They were all TERRIBLE employees and broke clear and important company rules with impunity.
Agreed.
Nothing stops them from suing the individual(s) for claims of racial or sexual harassment if it actually happens.
It takes away the incentive for the phony claims looking for a settlement from the business.
so the law uses the word “supervisor” instead of “manager” so SCOTUS must pretzel itself to make it all work?
Nice to hear that the Supreme Court has settled ail the big questions and have time for something like this.
Now, what have they decided on which are acceptable colors for a company lunchroom?
” “why is it that black people always seem to have some scam going on the job?””
I had one start on my crew, first day on the job wanted to get hurt so he could be put on lie duty and get paid for 50 hours without working.
He picked up the end of a joint of 2/38” tubing and dropped it on his hand thinking it was only going to bruise his hand.
Broke his finger instead.
Wanted me to take him to the doctor.
I told him he broke it on purpose so if he wanted to go to the doctor he could quit and walk to the doctor. That was about 8:00 or 8:30.
We stopped for lunch about 1:30 or 2:00 and I took him to the doctor.
First and last person ever tried that stunt on my crew.
The washpost headline is not entirely accurate. The Court decided that an employee is a “supervisor” for purposes of vicarious liability under Title VII only if he or she is empowered by the employer to take tangible employment actions against the victim and the Court defines “tangible employment action” to include actions that involve a “significant change in employment status, such as hiring, firing, failing to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits.”
This will turn government supervisor’s upside down. Currently if you have a “supervisor” it is in a duty section, branch, department, center, etc. This ruling would on the surface make only the Human Resources Office a supervisor - no wonder government is unaccountable.
Oh Great!
NOW they tell me!
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