Question

A woman received a score of 3.7 (out of 5.0) from her supervisor on her first performance appraisal. She began to experience severe sexual harassment from a co-worker who was a top performer and well-liked by everyone in the department. She complained about the harassment to her supervisor and to the human resources department on numerous occasions, but the employer never addressed the complaints. On a subsequent performance appraisal the woman received a score of 3.04. The woman was laid off shortly thereafter, with the employer citing the fact that she had the lowest overall performance rating as the basis for the decision. The woman sues. What should the court decide and why?

Your answer must include:

Any relevant legal principles and practical advice on performance appraisals from the reading, cases and lectures;

Any mistakes the employer made in handling the performance appraisal process or any other employment issue;

Any legal claims the employee could raise;

For each legal claim the employee raises:

state the legal rule/prima facie case the employee must establish to prevail AND

identify the facts that support the employee’s legal claims and arguments

Any arguments or legal defenses the employer could raise;

For each argument or legal defense the employer raises:

state the legal elements the employer must establish to prevail AND

identify the facts that support the employer’s arguments  

Answer 1

Civil Rights Act Title VII played a critical role in the workplace harassment or discrimination case. This title prohibits discrimination from employer on any kind of bias like sex, religion, race, sect, etc. This serves the basis of providing equal employment opportunities to all.

Workplace retaliation is the adverse action taken by an employer, against an employee who had recently complained about workplace harassment or discrimination. In this kind of situation, government has asked the employers to consider the complaint very seriously and take measures to address it. If the employer in turn, takes any action against the employee, the government has given the rights to employee to speak up and file against the retaliation.

This is a clear case of sexual harassment at workplace as well as workplace retaliation. Even though the supervisor as well as the HR Department were informed about the sexual harassment of plaintiff, the employer did not take any step to address the same and instead fired her citing performance issues. So both the co-worker as well as the management are equally guilty in this case.