Labor: U.S. Supreme Court Expands Employer Liability in Recent Decisions
Employers should re-examine policies in light of high court decisions in Staub and Kasten.
April 17, 2011 at 08:00 PM
19 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
In March 2011, the United States Supreme Court issued two decisions that created more employer liability for workplace discrimination and retaliation against employees.
In the first case, Staub v. Proctor Hospital, decided on March 1, the Supreme Court recognized for the first time the “cat's paw” theory of employer liability in employment discrimination cases whereby an employer may be blamed if the discriminatory act of a low-level supervisor (such as an unjustified poor performance evaluation or warning) motivates the ultimate employment decision of a higher-level executive who may have been unaware of the supervisor's bias and who may have acted with a pure heart and without any intent to discriminate.
In the second employment case decided by the Supreme Court this March, Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., the Court held in a 6-2 decision that oral complaints about violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act constituted conduct protected by the FLSA's anti-retaliation provision.
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