LEGALUPDATE
BY BOB GREGG SEX, AGE, DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
“Is ‘Good
Riddance
B---h’
Sexual
Harassment?”
Was this phrase actual harassment
when a male coworker shouted
it to a female financial adviser
who had just resigned?
Also, read this update on the
Walmart gender-disparity case.
Sex
Walmart class action Phase 2.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme
Court rejected the massive Duke
v. Walmart sex-discrimination
nationwide class action because
it was too large and had too many
diverse issues to fit within the
class-action rules. The plaintiffs
have now amended the complaint
to focus only on 90,000 female
Walmart employees in California.
Duke v. Walmart (N. D. Cal., 2011).
Hostile employment environment cannot exist the moment
employment ends. A moment can make a great difference. When a financial
adviser submitted her resignation letter, a male manager applauded, grabbed
her arm, pushed her out the building door and yelled, “Good riddance, b----!” She sued for hostile-environment sexual harassment and constructive
discharge. The court dismissed the case. There had been no sexually hostile
environment prior to the resignation. There had been animosity between the
manager and employee, but nothing to constitute sexual harassment. The
resignation was triggered by a corporate territory reassignment that affected
all advisers. Though the court found the manager’s conduct “reprehensible”
and “unacceptable,” it was not actionable. It was impossible for the
manager’s conduct to have “altered the employee’s terms or conditions
of employment” when it occurred after she resigned. Overly v. Key Bank
National Ass’n. (7th Cir., 2011).
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