How should you respond to a discrimination complaint that appears to be completely unfounded?
As GoDaddy, Inc. recently learned, even if the employee’s complaint appears to be baseless, you still must treat the complaint as serious and take all the same precautions you would with other bias complaints. If you don’t, you could be liable for retaliation.
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GoDaddy employee Youssef Bouamama complained to HR that his supervisor had made two inquiries regarding his national origin, ethnicity, and religion. Bouramama’s supervisor contended that he had once asked where photographs hanging in Bouramama’s cubicle where taken, but made no other remarks or inquiries.
HR never investigated Bouramama’s complaint.
In the months following his bias complaint, Bouramama was passed over for several promotions. After Bouramama had several confrontational discussions with HR and his supervisors about not getting promoted, GoDaddy fired him. What GoDaddy didn’t know was that during the morning of the same day that Bouramama was terminated, he had visited his local Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) office.
The EEOC sued GoDaddy on behalf of Bouramama, alleging discrimination and retaliation. At the end of the trial, the jury found that there was no evidence that either the supervisor or the company discriminated against Bouramama. But the jury also found that because the company blew off Bouramama’s bias complaint, and then refused to promote him and subsequently fired him, the company was guilty of retaliation. The jury awarded Bouramama $390,000 in damages.
GoDaddy appealed the jury’s decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Califronia), arguing that there was no evidence that Bouramama’s termination was retaliatory. The Ninth Circuit disagreed, and upheld the jury’s award.
Well tell you more about this case, and about how you should respond to even the most frivolous bias complaints, in an upcoming issue of California Employer Advisor.