Spouses, significant others or even friends of an employee may have claims against an employer for workplace retaliation. Thompson v. North American Stainless was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 24, 2011.

Eric Thompson was fired from his engineering job at North American Stainless in 2003, three weeks after his then-fiance, Miriam Regalado, filed a sex discrimination charge against the company. Thompson claimed his bosses fired him in retaliation for Regalado's complaint. His claim was premised on Title VII, the federal law that prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for filing discrimination complaints.

The district court ruled in favor of the company, saying Title VII does not permit third-party retaliation claims. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed in an 8-0 decision (Justice Kagan did not participate). Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. "We must also decline to identify a fixed class of relationships for which third-party reprisals are unlawful. We expect that firing a close family member will almost always meet the Burlington standard ["Title VII's antiretaliation provision must be construed to cover a broad range of employer conduct"], and inflicting a milder reprisal on a mere acquaintance will almost never do so, but beyond that we are reluctant to generalize."

Justice Ginsburg concurred in the unanimous opinion, adding that the decision is consistent with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Compliance Manual: "Title VIII 'prohibit[s] retaliation against someone so closely related to or associated with the person exercising his or her statutory rights that it would discourage or present the person from pursuing those rights.'"

The message for employers is to ensure that any disciplinary action, including termination of employment, is based upon objective, non-discriminatory, non-retaliatory criteria.

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