Alexandria, Va. (November 2, 2010) - The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to protect employers from being held liable under federal anti-discrimination laws if they had legitimate reasons for firing staff and were not aware that an employment recommendation they received may have been tainted by a supervisor’s bias.
Staub v. Proctor Hospital, which is being heard by the Supreme Court this afternoon, could severely impact school districts because their boards rely on the recommendations and advice of superintendents and other supervisors when making decisions on individual employees.
"The best way of addressing illegal discrimination in the workplace is through staff education and proper policies," said NSBA’s Executive Director Anne L. Bryant. "School districts across the country have developed strong anti-discrimination human resources policies to prevent improper hiring and termination practices."
The case, which will be decided before the Supreme Court’s term ends in June 2011, stems from a complaint by a Peoria, Ill. hospital employee, Vincent Staub, who was fired by a human resources manager who had received numerous complaints about his job performance. However, evidence later showed that some of the complaints came from two supervisors concerned about his obligations as a military reservist.
NSBA, the largest collective public employer in the nation, filed an amicus brief in September 2010 asking the Supreme Court to modify an earlier decision in the case by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Under that ruling, a school board would be liable under federal anti-discrimination laws for the discriminatory actions of supervisors and employees, even if the board knew nothing about this, unless the school board performed an ill-defined "independent investigation."
"Just like hospital management in this case, school boards often are quite removed from the day-to-day management of employees," NSBA's General Counsel Francisco M. Negrón, Jr. said. "But, because they bear the ultimate responsibility of being the final decision maker when terminating an employee, they could be liable for the discriminatory intent of the school official recommending terminations, even if the board knew nothing about it."
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Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their 95,000 local school board members throughout the U.S. Working with and through our state associations, NSBA advocates for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership. www.nsba.org
Amicus Brief:
http://nsba.org/MainMenu/SchoolLaw/AmicusBriefs/Staub-v-Proctor-Hospital.aspx