Greedy Trial Lawyer
Employers Rejoice Over "The Alito Gambit"
Category: Gaming The System
The question now arises: have five Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court lost their marbles? They have just ruled that incremental wage discrimination based on sex over a period of 19 years (and continuing) is not a violation of the federal Civil Rights Law.
In order for ongoing wage discrimination based on sex to be a violation it must have lasted no more than 180 days even if the victim was unaware of the discrimination.
High Court Limits Right To Sue Employers
Supreme Court Restricts Workers' Ability To Sue Over Pay DiscriminationCBS News) WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Tuesday limited workers' ability to sue employers for pay discrimination that results from decisions made years earlier.
The court, in a 5-4 ruling, said that employers would otherwise find it difficult to defend against claims "arising from employment decisions that are long past."
The case concerned how to apply a 180-day deadline for complaining about discriminatory pay decisions under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Lilly Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., claiming that after 19 years at the company's Gadsden, Ala., plant, she was making $6,000 a year less than the lowest-paid man doing the same work.
Ledbetter claimed the disparity existed for years and was primarily a result of her gender. A jury agreed, but an appeals court overturned the verdict because she had waited too long to begin her lawsuit.
The deadline set in the law means nothing if employees can reach back years to claim discrimination, the company argued to the court. [How about the biweekly discrimination that occurs with each paycheck?]
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, agreed that Ledbetter's claim was untimely.
CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen said the decision is a clear victory for employers.
"By limiting the timeframe that employees can use the decision obviously helps employers, both in limiting the number of cases that will be brought under the federal law and reducing the amount of damages in play even if any of those cases are successful," Cohen said.
The decision broke along ideological lines, with the court's four liberal justices dissenting.
All over America employers are establishing a new procedure (The Alito Gambit) when hiring a female - start them off with a relatively small pay differential from the wage of the last male hire. Then, after 180 days, incrementally make the differential greater and greater. And, be sure to schedule a small celebration among managers if the new female employee goes past the first 180 days without filing a wage discrimination claim. Also, send a thank you note to the fab five Supreme Court Justices for their helpful assistance to the bottom line.
Are these Justices from another planet where newly hired women immediately investigate and determine the wages of their co-workers and predecessors and file wage discrimination claims if they even suspect they are not being treated fairly?
In a separate opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking for the four dissenters, countered that for many workers it takes years to figure out they are being shortchanged on salaries. The majority's approach, Ginsburg said, ignores "the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination." At least four of the nine Justices live in America.
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