FILE THESE GRIEVANCES NOW

The Supreme Court is considering whether an employee can file an EEO charge when an employer merely reassigns the employee to significantly less desirable work—without a reduction is pay. To date, most courts have required that the employee suffer more tangible harm than a mere reassignment to have a legitimate discrimination claim, e.g., suffered a salary demotion, lost out on a promotion, assigned less desirable hours, etc. Many of the media pundits who follow the Court’s recent public arguments felt the Justices showed a lot of sympathy for broadening that standard. Consequently, it occurred to us that employees who suffered any action they felt damaging in the last six months would be wise to file a grievance or EEO charge now.  If they wait for the Court’s decision in the spring, it might be too late for them.  Check out the NY Times story entitled, “Supreme Court Analyzes Discrimination Law in Job Transfer Case” for more details the new kind of harm the court is considering, e.g., moving from a fixed to rotating shift with weekend duties, being ordered back into uniform after plain clothes duty, losing overtime opportunities. Get the word out to your stewards and members that they should talk to the union if they recently suffered similar harm due to a discriminatory motive.