{"id":180,"date":"2019-03-11T13:48:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T13:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherin.com\/employment-blog\/?p=180"},"modified":"2021-06-10T18:52:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T18:52:00","slug":"high-court-reinforces-discrimination-is-about-more-than-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sherin.com\/employment-blog\/2019\/03\/11\/high-court-reinforces-discrimination-is-about-more-than-money\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court Reinforces Discrimination Is About More Than Money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms and present itself in countless ways. Many people mistakenly believe that discrimination is not actionable until the discrimination has had a financial impact. A recent Supreme Judicial Court decision clarified that this is not true under Massachusetts\u2019 anti-discrimination statute, Chapter 151B. In the recent case of <em>Yee v. Massachusetts State Police<\/em>, the Court considered what constitutes an \u201cadverse employment action\u201d and reinforced that discrimination claims are about more than just money.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Law<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Chapter 151B makes it unlawful for any employer, on the basis of \u201crace, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation\u2026genetic information, ancestry or status as a veteran,\u201d to discriminate \u201cin compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Case<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In <em>Yee<\/em>, the Court addresses whether the denial of Officer Yee\u2019s request for a lateral transfer to a specific unit \u2013 one generally considered a preferred unit\/position \u2013 could be unlawfully discriminatory. A Superior Court judge had granted the Massachusetts State Police\u2019s motion for summary judgement, concluding the plaintiff had not met this burden of showing that the denial of his request for a lateral transfer was an \u2018adverse employment action\u2019. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed and remanded the earlier decision, stating\u00a0that because \u201cthere are material differences between [the] two positions in the opportunity to earn compensation, or in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, the failure to grant a lateral transfer to the preferred position may constitute an adverse employment action under c. 151B.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Court\u2019s Ruling and Impact<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Court\u2019s discussion regarding \u201cterms, conditions or privileges of employment\u2026\u201d is important. In its ruling, the Court, for the first time, elaborated on what each of those words mean.<\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cTerms of employment\u201d includes \u201cpersonnel policies\u2026or contractual provisions that may be either explicit or implied.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201c\u2018Conditions of employment\u2019 may \u2026 encompass the general environment, atmosphere, or quality of the workplace.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cA \u2018privilege of employment\u2019 is an unmandated benefit that, \u2018though not a contractual right of employment,\u2019 is nonetheless customarily provided by an employer\u2026[and] may not be doled out in a discriminatory fashion.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, whether a particular employment action is \u201cadverse\u201d requires a case-by-case analysis, viewed from the perspective of a reasonable person in the employee\u2019s position. The Court offered the example that a \u201ctransfer from an evening to a day shift may be an adverse employment action to one employee, but be\u00a0welcomed by another.\u201d The ruling enforces that, because these cases involve genuine issues of material fact, their merits should be evaluated by a jury at trial, and not prematurely disposed of by a judge.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that discrimination is about more than money. Whether or not a particular employment action violates Chapter 151B is a fact-intensive inquiry that requires careful, case-specific examination. Additionally, the time within which to pursue claims can be very short. Retaining counsel sooner rather than later can help you protect and preserve your rights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms and present itself in countless ways. Many people mistakenly believe that discrimination is not actionable until the discrimination has had a financial impact. A recent Supreme Judicial Court decision clarified that this is not true under Massachusetts\u2019 anti-discrimination statute, Chapter 151B. In the recent case of Yee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>High Court Reinforces Discrimination Is About More Than Money - Employment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherin.com\/employment-blog\/2019\/03\/11\/high-court-reinforces-discrimination-is-about-more-than-money\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High Court Reinforces Discrimination Is About More Than Money - Employment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discrimination in the workplace can take many forms and present itself in countless ways. 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