08/08/2011 // Dallas Employment Lawyer // (press release)
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court held that an employer can be liable for a supervisor’s discrimination if such discrimination plays a role in a later adverse employment action. Staub v. Proctor Hospital. Staub, a member of the U.S. army reserve and an employee of Proctor, was discriminated against by two of his supervisors. The supervisors were hostile towards Staub’s military obligations and fabricated several accusations against Staub; claiming he violated rules that didn’t exist and complaining that he was frequently unavailable. As a result of theses accusations, Staub was fired by Buck, Proctor’s vice president, who was unaware of the supervisor’s discrimination.
Staub sued Proctor claiming his termination was discriminatory because Buck lacked any discriminatory animus towards him, and she based her termination on information from Staub’s supervisors, which was discriminatory. The Supreme Court agreed with Staub and held his termination was discriminatory. As a result, if an agent of an employer commits an action based on discriminatory animus, intending to and causing an adverse employment action, the employer will be liable regardless if the employer knew of discrimination at the time of termination.
To speak to a Dallas, Texas business and employment law attorney about workplace discrimination, contact the business and employment lawyers of Rogge Dunn Group PC at info@RoggeDunnGroup.com