A valuable lesson on what’ll get you sued for sex discrimination
This employee committed workplace misconduct and was fired. She even admitted to the misconduct. So why in the world was her sex discrimination lawsuit allowed to stand?
Because, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, she’d presented enough evidence that her gender may have been a “motivating factor” in her termination.
Auto mechanic Jennifer Chavez claims that after she announced to her employer, Credit Nation Auto Sales, that she was transitioning from male to female that management was looking for a reason to get rid of her.
In support of her claims, Chavez said after she announced her intent to undergo gender transition surgery:
- Credit Nation’s president said he was “very nervous” about her gender transition and the “possible ramifications”
- the president said he thought Chavez would “negatively impact his business”
- Chavez was asked “not to wear a dress back and forth to work”
- she was told she needed to “tone it down” and not talk as much about her gender transition in the shop, and to be “very careful” because the president “didn’t like” the implications of Chavez’s planned gender transition
- she became the subject of heightened scrutiny, despite having been called an excellent employee and receiving no discipline prior to her transition, and
- the shop foreman told Chavez after her termination that he knew for a fact she was “run out of Credit Nation.”
Misconduct
So how did Chavez commit misconduct? She was caught sleeping in a customer’s car. This was a violation of company policy, and she admitted to it.
Still, after her termination, she filed a sex discrimination lawsuit.
The company tried to get her lawsuit thrown out during the summary judgment stage, claiming it had a legitimate reason for terminating her — she violated company policy.
But the court ruled:
“… Chavez need not show that the legitimate reason for her termination was pretextual … Rather, it is enough that she show that discriminatory animus existed and was at least ‘a motivating factor’.”
In other words, if she could show sex bias played any kind of part in her firing, her case could stand — and that’s exactly what the court ruled. Her case is moving on.
Credit Nation now has to choose between an expensive trial or an expensive settlement.
What ultimately did Credit Nation in at this stage of the lawsuit was that it appeared Chavez’s downhill slide in her employment there began immediately after she announced her gender transition — and not a moment before.
As a result, the court ruled it was reasonable to see that a jury could see discriminatory intent in Credit Nation’s actions to terminate Chavez.
Now, it’s up to Credit Nation to disprove that intent existed — if it doesn’t settle first.
Cite: Chavez v. Credit Nation Auto Sales LLC
