The U.S. Supreme Court held on Tuesday that employees who contended they received disparate treatment on the basis of gender or race must file their claims within 180 days of the original discriminatory action, rather than within 180 days from their last paycheck. According to the court, “[a] new violation does not occur, and a new charging period does not commence, upon the occurrence of subsequent nondiscriminatory acts that entail adverse effects resulting from the past discrimination.” Following this decision, employers will have an easier time defending against Title VII workplace discrimination claims that are based on decisions regarding salary and raises made long before they were filed, sometimes without documentation and by supervisors who no longer work for the company.

A Goodyear plant manager from Gadsden, Alabama, Lilly Ledbetter, alleged that she was paid 15 to 40 percent less than her male coworkers. Goodyear argued that she did not timely file her complaint. Ledbetter initially filed suit in 1999 in federal court for the northern district of Alabama and received a jury verdict of $223,000 in back pay and over three million dollars in punitive damages for discrimination that affected her from the time she was hired until the time she filed her EEOC complaint. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the jury decision, ruling that no discriminatory employment decision was made within the 180 days before she filed her complaint.

The case is Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Inc., 05-1074, 550 U.S. ___ (2007).

Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/scm/PubArticleSCM.jsp?id=1180429529311