Workers Who Speak Out

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The Supreme Court issued a strong ruling this week in favor of employees who are retaliated against for complaining about being harassed. The justices unanimously sided with a woman who was fired after answering questions in her company’s investigation of a sexual harassment claim. The ruling should give more employees the courage to speak up when they see civil rights laws being broken in their workplaces.

Vicky Crawford, who worked for the Nashville school system, was questioned by her employer as part of an internal investigation of the system’s employee relations director. Ms. Crawford told an investigator of several instances of sexually harassing conduct.

At the end of the inquiry, the employee relations director kept his job. Ms. Crawford was fired for embezzlement, although the charges against her were not pursued. She sued, charging that her firing was retaliatory.

The school system argued that Ms. Crawford was not covered by the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because she did not file the complaint against the employee relations director. She simply answered questions that were put to her. Ms. Crawford insisted that her participation in the internal investigation was enough to win her protection.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/opinion/30fri2.html?th&emc=th