Adverse Employment Actions and Good Human Resources Practices
The nature of an “adverse employment action” is discussed by Daniel Schwartz in the Connecticut Employment Blog (CEB) in a post entitled Court: Denial of Transfer Is Not Race Discrimination. The post discusses a Connecticut District Court case, Charles v. State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, decided only a day or so ago (hence, no citation available yet), for which a link is provided in the CEB post.
In this case of alleged discrimination based on race, the Court decided a “truly” lateral transfer with “no significant changes in an employee’s conditions of employment” is not an adverse employment action. The decision still leaves open possibilities where the transfer is not “truly lateral” and where “significant changes” in employment conditions might be identified and argued. That’s a discussion for another case and another time.
The CEB post, after reviewing the case, makes two points: (1) that a small number of employees may sue for anything and (2) a good human resources practice should be about positive options for employee career paths, not just discipline and discharge.
Well said. We would add one other point: “good human resources practice” is not the concern of a specialized department of a large organization but of the management and principals of any organization of any size. In the 16th page of the 20 page decision, the Court reminds the parties that the issue in a discrimination case is whether an employer discriminated not whether the employer is “wise, shrewd, prudent or competent.” However, unwise, imprudent and incompetent actions are nothing to be proud of and, among other consequences, invite lawsuits.
For a fuller discussion of the case, we recommend the CEB post.
