Supreme Court Expands Availability of Retaliation Claim to Parties “Connected” to an Employee Who Complains of Discrimination

Employers have a new reason to take care when making employment decisions that could subject them to statutory liability. Retaliation complaints under federal employment discrimination laws — in which individuals claim that they were punished by employers for taking statutorily-protected actions — have increased significantly in number during the past few years. Complainants filed 36,258 retaliation charges against private employers with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the “EEOC”) in the 2010 fiscal year. Totaling 36.3 percent of all EEOC charges for the year, retaliation claims surpassed other federal discrimination charges for the first time.