Human Resource Blog

Retaliation in Hawaii

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One employee has made several discrimination complaints with the EEOC and Human Resources. Can I fire her for being a troublemaker, in

Hawaii?

No. This is clearly illegal. Whether the complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) were valid or not, retaliation can be discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

You as an employer are forbidden from finding an excuse to fire a worker simply because she has made discrimination complaints. That applies whether those complaints were made to the EEOC or to your Human Resources department.

Employers find many ways to retaliate, unfortunately. Besides firing, they include demotion, cuts in pay, changes in work conditions, and failure to give deserved pay hikes or promotions. Some employers even mastermind plans in which other workers will refuse to talk to the worker who files complaints, or to otherwise shun her.

However, retaliation can be costly as well as illegal. Consider the case of a company that the EEOC found was discriminating against African-American, Hispanic and Asian employees at its plants in Rockton and Rockford, Illinois. The company, known as Woodward Governor, is based in

Fort Collins, Colorado. As a result of the case, Woodward Governor had to pay $5 million. Fortunately, it had retained its complainant workers at the two plants. If the company had retaliated, the costs it would have faced could have been far greater.

The case against Woodward Governor involved two lawsuits. The first was race-based, filed in 2003, and grew out of a 2002 complaint. The second, gender-based, was filed in 2006. Both were settled recently.

Employers have been known to practice all kinds of retaliation. It might involve changing the job duties of a worker who has filed a complaint. It might involve demotion. It could involve changing her working conditions. The company may persuade other workers to start a no-talk campaign against her, or to shun her in other ways. Failure to pay a deserved pay hike or to make a promotion are other techniques used. All are illegal.