In one recent case, a supervisor caught an African-American employee setting off firecrackers at a job site. The supervisor notified upper management, and the employee was fired for a blatant violation of their safety policy.

Seems like a pretty simple case, right? Wrong.

The employee sued for discrimination. Two white employees were caught doing the same thing and weren’t reported by the supervisor.

The company’s defense: The decision-makers were never aware of the other safety violations. The employee was fired based on his manager’s report. If the company knew about the other employees’ conduct, they would’ve been fired, too.

But that didn’t matter to the judge. The front-line manager discriminated against the employee by taking action against him and not his white co-workers. Therefore, the company was liable.

Cite: Madden v. Chattanooga City Wide Service Dept.

A non-white employee claimed she was harassed and then fired because of her race. She sued for bias.

The company argued she’d been fired legitimately for submitting falsified reports. The judge agreed the firing was fair, because the employee couldn’t show any evidence that white employees had done the same thing without being fired.

That part of the suit was thrown out. Things didn’t end there, though.

The woman also filed a hostile work environment claim, on the grounds that her manager made constant racially derogatory remarks. Allegedly, the conduct was severe enough that her work suffered and she wanted to transfer to a different department.

Regarding the hostile environment claim, the judge saw enough evidence against the employer to let the case move forward. Now the company faces a costly trial or an expensive settlement.

Cite: Shockley v. Healthsouth Central Georgia Rehabilitation Hosp.