STRAY REMARKS THAT HURT WORSE THAN DIRECT COMMENTS

Think comments made even indirectly to an employee can’t harm you?  Think again.  And it applies to your employees as well.

A couple of recent court rulings show that comments made about or to an employee under a protected class can be used in discrimination suits even if they weren’t made directly to the employee.

In Reid v Google, Inc. the plaintiff, Reid, age 52 sued for age discrimination based on comments made about him.

His supervisor was overheard referring to him as “fuzzy, obsolete, too old to matter, slow, sluggish and lacked energy”.

His co-workers referred to him as “the old guy, an old fuddy-duddy,” and joked that his name plate, in the shape of a CD should be changed to an LP.

Reid sued.  Google claimed protection under the “stray remarks rule” basically stating the comments were taken out of context and said amongst other employees, not directly to Reid.

The California Supreme Court rejected the defense that would have excluded certain comments under the rule.

This decision now makes it potentially more difficult for cases to be dismissed on summary judgment.

So, seemingly harmless remarks must be taken seriously especially if a potential protected class is involved.  Employees needs to be aware that anything they say about another employee, either directly or indirectly that comments on their age, sex, race, religion, pregnancy, sexual orientation, etc, can be used against the company in discrimination law suits.  No longer is it just what is said by management directly to an employee that could get you in trouble, but anything said about an employee by anyone in the company even in a joking manner.

 

Source:  Employer Resource Institute

 

Tags: employee discrimination, Employee lawsuits, HR, Human Resources