Employment Law: Third Party Retaliation
The U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that a man that was fired just weeks after his fiance filed a sex discrimination claim had standing to bring a retaliation claim. The man and his fiance worked for the same employer. The case is Thompson v. North American Stainless. Normally a retaliation claim can only be brought by someone that is engaged in protected activity. That is those who file a claim, report discriminatioin or somehow assist in the claim. The man had done none of those things. His only connection was that he was the fiance to the woman who filed the claim. To prove retaliation it must be an action that "well might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination." Firing the worker's fiance certainly fits that bill but that still only makes it a claim that can be made by the person who engaged in the protected activity. Justice Scalia comes to the rescue by ruling that the man came within the "zone of interests" protected by Title VII and therefor he had standing to bring the claim. In the language of the statute he was a "person aggreived". On the one hand that seems to be a stretch, but on the other hand he is the one who was fired and to not give him a claim would undermine Title VII.
