WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court made it easier for victims to complain about long-term job discrimination or harassment, ruling on Monday that statutes of limitations do not always apply when shabby treatment is extended over a period of months or years, according to a wire service.
An unusual lineup of justices voted 5-4 to allow more leeway for workers who claim a pattern of unfair treatment under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Such suits can come outside the usual 180- or 300-day time limitations so long as the suit is filed within the limits for at least one of the alleged rights violations, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority.
Otherwise, events at the start of the pattern would be excluded from court review, leaving only the most recent incidents, the majority reasoned.
“Given … that the incidents comprising a hostile work environment are part of one unlawful employment practice, the employer may be liable for all acts that are part of this single claim,” Thomas wrote for himself and the four justices in the court’s moderate-to-liberal wing.
The coalition is noteworthy, because Thomas is one of the court’s most conservative justices and was head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under two Republican presidents.
Thomas rarely parts company with conservative compatriots Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia ( news – web sites), who dissented from the most significant part of Monday’s ruling.
The court also clarified earlier precedents, ruling that workers are bound by the time limitations when they allege single or “discrete” acts of discrimination on the job. It is only workers who claim an ongoing “hostile work environment” who may sue over incidents that took place outside that window.
A pattern of workplace discrimination “occurs over a series of days or perhaps years and, in direct contrast to discrete acts, a single act of harassment may not be actionable on its own,” Thomas wrote. “Such claims are based on the cumulative effect of individual acts.”
The court also made clear that employers may still claim that an employee was lax in filing a discrimination claim, and workers cannot delay a claim for no reason.
The ruling is a partial victory for Abner Morgan, a black former electrical worker for Amtrak. Morgan claimed he suffered racial discrimination during nearly the entire five years he worked for Amtrak, ending with his firing in 1995.
The case is National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 00-1614.