TS Engineer Loses Job Discrimination Case on Appeal

[Carolyn Marie]

http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/280080/employment+litigation+tribunals/Third+Circuit+Finds+Transgender+Employees+Termination+Not+Related+to+Her+Gender

Carolyn Marie

[Drea]

Sounds like it was a very weak case to begin with. But it does play into the fear employers have when offering positions to minorities and those who fall within a protected group when their qualifications are iffy. They become reluctant to make an offer to see if they work out because of fear that if they have to let them go, it will be viewed as discriminatory and they have to deal with legal expenses. Ultimately it hurts the protected group which is unfortunate.

[Guest Mia J]

From the story it sounds like the company was well within it's rights in the layoff. I did not see anything about past performance reviews that showed her as an outstanding employee.

I agree with Drea that this can sometimes hurt us by making employers reluctant to hire us in the first place.

Mia

[Guest LizMarie]

You need pretty blatant evidence to win these sorts of things. She might have been better served by simply finding good referrals from among her peers and using those in her subsequent job search. She had obviously been successful there for many years and been accepted so should have been able to muster some positive referrals. In fact, when large companies do large scale layoffs like this, the HR department is often active in assisting employees to some degree in finding new employment.

[Drea]

I would also note, a team leader in a product line they aren't planning to expand is a double whammy as well. Two things tend to happen on layoffs. Management level people tend to protect themselves and they often hack the more senior (and expensive) people where not critical for success in favor of younger (and cheaper) people. On a product line which didn't have future with the company chopping the senior people and letting the junior ones support it till end of life is natural.

There may have been some bias, possibly some history, which created her feeling she had a case.

A friend worked for a company for close to 20 years after transitioning on the job. Even after all that time her own insecurities caused her to see sleights and non-acceptance on a periodic basis. I think many of the instances were just her perception. Another friend worked at the same company with her and from her perspective didn't hear anyone talking about my other friend is negative ways behind her back.