As you can image, Taylor filed suit under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for sexual harassment … and she added a claim of retaliation for good measure.

The court tossed out the harassment portion of the lawsuit, noting that the company didn’t know of the ongoing harassment and, when it did find out, it took prompt action the same day.

The retaliation portion is another story. The dealership tried to claim that pushing an arbitration agreement in front of Taylor on the day she complained wasn’t a threat. Instead, it was part of the company’s overall initiative to distribute new arbitration pacts to all employees.

But the court smelled a rat. It sent to the retaliation claim to trial, where a jury will decide if the timing of the arbitration agreement truly was retaliation. As I said last week, timing is everything. (Taylor v. Richardson Automotive II L.P. d/b/a Toyota of Richardson, N.D. Tex., No. 3:05-CV-2397-D, 7/6/07).

Lessons Learned…Without Having to Go To Court

• “Same day” responses are best. You should always take prompt effective action to investigate all complaints. That’s what saved this employer from the costly harassment claim. Same-day actions are always best, and appear best in court, too.
  
  
• Have a heightened sense of awareness for retaliatory conduct ... and explain the risk to management. The standards for filing retaliation claims are so easy now (thanks, in part, to a Supreme Court ruling last year) almost anything an employer does to the employee after filing a claim could be perceived as retaliation. Make sure supervisors run all potential adverse actions against complainers by HR before they take action.
  
  At every turn, supervisors and you should be asking yourselves this key question: “Could what we are about to do to or ask of the employee who just filed a complaint possibly be perceived as retaliation?”