Court Allows Telework Retaliation Claim to Go Forward

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, workers and employers have wrestled with the question of whether certain jobs can be performed remotely. Various factors can be considered when an employee makes a telework request, and disagreements frequently arise. For example, a lawsuit filed by a Black worker at the Brookhaven Lab on Long Island claimed that racial bias was to blame for the fact that she was not allowed to work mostly from home while many of her white colleagues were. 

In Jones v. Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC, Terry Jones, an employee at the lab since the mid ‘90s, alleged that when Brookhaven reopened following the COVID-19 lockdown, she wanted to continue performing her job duties primarily from her residence. Four similarly situated white co-workers were given a rotation schedule under which they spent four days per week at home and one at the lab.

However, Jones was not offered the same schedule because her boss said that one of her job duties was retrieving photo negatives from the file room, which required her to be onsite. Subsequently, she was also told that her presence was required at the lab because she needed to interact with customers. In response, Jones cited potential safety concerns because of her close proximity to co-workers and said that arrangements could be made that enabled her to work remotely most days. 

Jones then filed a complaint with the EEOC alleging that racial discrimination was the reason why she was being treated differently than fellow employees who were white. After that, Jones said she was told that a partial remote schedule would be authorized if she dismissed her EEOC complaint with prejudice. She refused to do so. At that point, Jones claims that her boss and a co-worker started treating her rudely and engaging in other forms of retaliation, such as giving her menial assignments, refusing to acknowledge her presence and slamming a door in her face. 

When settlement negotiations were fruitless, Jones filed her lawsuit against Brookhaven in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Upon review of the parties’ summary judgment motions, Judge Nusrat Choudhury dismissed the racial discrimination claim, but allowed the actions alleging retaliation based on the menial work and a retaliatory hostile work environment to stand. 

This decision shows that even when a judge finds no basis for the underlying discrimination claim, a case alleging retaliation for making the claim can go forward. At Kardell Law Group, our attorneys are seasoned employment litigators who effectively assert the rights of workers victimized by discrimination and unlawful retaliation.