Hostile Work Environment or Tangible Employment Action?

In the most recent edition of the FELTG newsletter, William Wiley and Ernest Hadley provide a scintillating exchange of articles surrounding a recent EEOC decision regarding a retroactive promotion – Hadley v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, NIH, EEOC Appeal No. 0120113029 (December 6, 2011).[Note: the Hadleys are not related.]

This issue centers around a supervisor asking an employee out for a date multiple times, and the employee refusing his advances. Per Mr. Wiley’s interpretation, “When the employee did not receive an expected career-ladder promotion after this incident, she filed a claim of sexual harassment…EEOC concluded that she was indeed the victim of sexual harassment, and ordered a retroactive promotion.”

Take a look at the facts (and our humble opinions) in the articles The Insidious Problem with the EEO Complaint Process and EEOC: Just Too Many Decisions, and let us know what you think about this situation. It’s certainly one to be debated!