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Retaliation for reporting off-duty off-premises co-worker harassment?
August 06, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
Employers beware: Reporting non-actionable harassment can still support a claim for retaliation. That's the message from Meece v. Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ND Georgia 08/02/2006), even though the employee eventually lost. [Court opinion] [Magistrate opinion]
Stephanie Meece was a flight attendant who shared an apartment ("crash pad") with a pilot and other co-workers. Meece claimed the pilot sexually harassed her - at the apartment, at the mall, and at the movies - three or four times a week for three or four months. These incidents did not effect her job performance. After about three months, Meece reported these incidents to her supervisor. The employer discharged Meece six months after she was hired.
Meece lost on her harassment claim, primarily because the harassment occurred off-duty and off-premises.
She also lost her retaliation claim, primarily because she couldn't show the employer's reason for discharge (substandard performance) was pretextual.
The important message from this case is the court's conclusion that Meece had a reasonable and good faith belief that the non-actionable harassment was a Title VII violation.
Lots of cases hold that off-duty off-premises co-worker harassment does not violate Title VII, so you might think her belief was not "reasonable."
The court noted that some cases have found employer liability for off-duty harassment (such as when an airline pays for a flight crew's hotel room). So the court decided that "it was not unreasonable for the Plaintiff to believe the behavior constituted sexual harassment."
If Meece's evidence of pretext had not been so miserably thin, she might have had a shot at a jury. And trust me on this. Juries really do not like employers to retaliate against employees because they reported harassment.
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