Class 12 Legal Environment of Work: Discipline, Discharge, and Discrimination

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering adverse actions, legitimate non-discriminatory reasons, pretext, comparator evidence, and key legal precedents from Week 6, Class 12 of Legal Environment of Work.

Adverse Action

An employment decision that materially alters the terms, conditions, or status of employment, including dismissal, constructive discharge, suspension, disciplinary reprimands, less favorable working conditions, or negative evaluations that affect pay, promotion, or records.

Constructive Discharge

An adverse action occurring when an employer imposes working conditions that are objectively so intolerable that a reasonable employee feels compelled to quit.

Negative Evaluation with Effect

A performance review that qualifies as an adverse action only when it tangibly affects an employee's employment record, pay, or prospects for promotion.

McDonnell Douglas Framework

A three-step burden-shifting standard established in McDonnell Douglas v. Green to evaluate intentional employment discrimination claims based on indirect evidence.

Prima Facie Case (Discrimination)

The employee's initial burden to show that they are a member of a protected class, applied and were qualified for the job, suffered an adverse action, and the position was filled by someone else or remained open.

Legitimate, Non-Discriminatory Reason

The employer's burden in step two of the indirect evidence framework to produce evidence of a valid, lawful explanation for taking the adverse action.

Pretext

A situation where an employer's stated justification for an adverse action is demonstrated to be untruthful or fabricated, acting as a cover for intentional discrimination.

Documented Performance (Path A)

An employer's method of demonstrating a legitimate reason for adverse action using accurate written job criteria, unbiased current evaluations applied consistently, and records of strengths and deficiencies beyond annual reviews.

Similarly Situated Employees (Path B)

Employees who hold the same job, are evaluated under the same performance and conduct standards, and report to the same decision-maker, used as comparators to evaluate equal treatment.

Zhuang v. Datacard (8th Cir. 2005)

A case upholding an employee's discharge as legitimate because older positive evaluations were too remote in time, others' worse performance did not establish discriminatory intent, white male coworkers were also terminated, and courts will not act as 'super-personnel departments.'

Hamilton v. Southwestern Bell

A case establishing that enforcing an established workplace violence policy constitutes a legitimate reason for discharge, even if the employee's heated behavior stemmed from PTSD.

Burrell v. Dr Pepper/Seven Up (5th Cir. 2007)

A case demonstrating that an employer had a legitimate reason for discharge based on documented insubordination, including missed reports and vacation requests, refusing a project task, and writing disrespectful messages to a supervisor.

Durst v. City of Philadelphia (E.D. Pa. 2018)

A case holding that an employee's falsification of 10 records out of 600 inspections was a legitimate policy-violation reason for discharge where no non-white inspector was treated more favorably.

Honest Belief Rule

The legal standard establishing that an employer provides a legitimate defense if the decision-maker held an honest, good-faith belief in the employee's policy violation at the time of the adverse action.

Direct Attack on the Reason

A method of proving pretext by presenting evidence showing that the employer's factual justification for the adverse action is simply not true.

Subjectivity of the Reason

A category of pretext evidence showing that an employer relied on vague criteria, applied double standards, or committed disturbing procedural irregularities during the adverse action process.

Lopez v. River Oaks Imaging

A case where a job applicant defeated summary judgment by demonstrating pretext through timing and statements, after a job offer was rescinded only upon the clinic discovering the applicant was biologically male dressing as a woman, paired with an HR comment that hiring depended on being 'more masculine.'

Ellis v. UPS (2008)

A case dismissing a discrimination claim because interracial couples who were treated differently reported to different managers, and race-related comments were not made by the decision-maker and were distant in time from the discharge.

Riggs v. Airtran

A case demonstrating an employer's honest belief defense, where a strongly worded passenger complaint justified discharge despite presence of inconsistencies in company documentation and testimony.

Religious Accommodation Burden

The requirement that an employer must show actual undue hardship using objective evidence rather than hypothetical conjecture, assessing factors such as diminished efficiency, infringement on coworker rights, workplace safety, or added burdens on colleagues.