An employee complains about a perfectly legal policy change. Later, he’s fired. Can he sue for retaliation? Read the facts of this real-life case and decide: Who won?

The facts:

The company changed the way it scheduled shifts to reduce the number of overtime hours. Some workers objected to the change, and a line supervisor complained to upper-level management on their behalf. Soon after, he was fired for poor performance. He claimed it was because of his complaint, and he sued for retaliation.

The employer said:

Employees can only sue for retaliation if they complain about a violation of the law. But the schedule change was perfectly legal, so the man had no reason to sue.

Who won the case?

Answer: The employer.

Why: The court pointed out that companies can get hit with retaliation claims without having broken the law in the first place. But that’s only if the employee believes the law was broken and files a complaint accordingly.

In this case, nothing in the supervisor’s complaint had anything to do with the legality of the schedule change — he just said his workers were upset about losing the OT hours.

Cite: Hagan v. Echostar Satellite, LLC

Tags: complaints, FLSA, OT, retaliation