Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Employer Retaliation: Protected Conduct Not Required

At-will employment is common, and if you are an at-will employee and your employer fires you, you generally have little recourse. An employer can fire an at-will employee for any reason or no reason at all, as long as the reason was not discriminatory or retaliatory. If your employer has fired you because you report your company's wrongful conduct, however, the termination is wrongful. A Los Angeles employment lawyer can advise you as to whether your employer's reasons for terminating you are improper under California law and under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The Civil Rights Acts allows you to file a lawsuit against your employer if your employer fires you in retaliation for filing a misconduct report against the employer.

But imagine this: what if your spouse or a relative works with you at your place of employment and reports your employer for misconduct What if then, the employer fires you to punish the person who reported the company?

In an opinion issued in January 2011, the United States Supreme Court held that a third party could bring a retaliatory discharge claim against his or her employer even if the employer acted with intent to harm another. The case of Thompson v. North American Stainless involved Eric Thompson, who worked at North American Stainless with his fiancè, Miriam Regalado. Regalado filed a sex discrimination complaint with the EEOC against North American Stainless. To retaliate against Regalado, North American Stainless fired her fiancè , Eric Thompson.

The Court held that although Thompson himself had not engaged in any protected conduct because he did not file the EEOC complaint himself, the firing rose to the level necessary for a Title VII claim. Regalado might not have filed her EEOC complaint if she had thought they might fire Thompson, the Court reasoned, and if an employer takes an action that "might well have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination", the employer has likely violated Title VII.

This new Supreme Court case gives you standing to sue even if your termination was in retaliation against someone else. Your success in such a suit would depend on the individual circumstances of your case. If you believe your employer fired you to retaliate against a coworker spouse or relative who reported the employer's misconduct, contact a Los Angeles employment attorney as soon as possible to evaluate your case.