I was recently reading a newspaper (yes, some people still do that!) and came across an article about an all-too-familiar situation for some employers. The article reported a case involving a former employee of an employer who was fired after he intervened as a witness on behalf of a co-worker who alleged that she was sexually harassed. The employee sued the employer claiming a retaliatory firing because of his involvement as an unfavorable witness to the company on the co-worker’s sexual harassment claim. The employer argued that the employee was fired for performance issues, but the jury did not buy the argument. The fired employee was ultimately awarded $3 million dollars in damages.
As I was reading the article, it reminded me of what William Shakespeare once wrote in his play “Othello” about jealousy being “a green-eyed monster.” In the realm of labor and employment law, one can say the same thing equally about retaliation and its own resemblance to that same famous literary creature.
Too often, when a claim is filed by an employee, an employer becomes angry and wants to fight back and get revenge against the employee for asserting the legal claim. The temptation is real for many employers. They feel betrayed that an employee would accuse them of violating the law. It can get especially personal when an employee accuses an employer of engaging in wrongful discrimination. No one wants to be called a bigot or find themselves on the wrong end of any legal case. But an employer must fight the urge to engage in retaliatory action against an employee for exercising protected legal rights. Mounting a strong legal defense to a filed claim should always be the goal when faced with a legal claim. Retaliation of any kind should not be part of that strategy!
Just about all of the major federal and state anti-discrimination laws protect employees against retaliation in exercising rights vested under these laws. Whistleblower laws likewise provide protection against retaliation. So do ironically many employer policies themselves. No doubt, most employers like the one here likely had its own anti-harassment policy that urged employees to invoke its procedures without fear of any workplace reprisals. Yet, employer retaliation happens. And when it does, it will often provide an employee with an even stronger legal claim than the one that was originally being pursued, which only makes it harder to mount a successful legal defense.
Thus, employers must fight the urge to succumb to the “green-eyed monster” of retaliation. Just as jealousy wreaks havoc in Othello’s life in the famous Shakespeare play, so can retaliation for an employer in its efforts to remain compliant with labor and employment laws.
The temporary taste of vengeance is fleeting, just ask Othello, or this employer as it is writing out that $3 million check. Fight that temptation at all costs so you too do not become just another tragic figure like Othello!
