Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ Title VII action alleging that defendant failed to hire plaintiffs in retaliation for plaintiffs accusing their former employer of sexual harassment/sex discrimination in either EEOC charge or in Emergency Medical Service Act lawsuit under circumstances where defendant hired all of plaintiffs’ co-workers to perform same work on contract that had been previously assigned to plaintiff’s former employer. While Dist. Ct. found that plaintiffs could not state viable retaliation case in absence of plaintiffs formally applying for said work, Ct. of Appeals held that said failure to apply for work did not preclude instant retaliation claim, since: (1) alleged adverse act concerned defendant’s, as well as former employer’s, failure to inform plaintiffs of job openings when they informed all of plaintiffs’ co-workers about said openings under circumstances where none of plaintiffs’ co-workers had engaged in any protected conduct; and (2) plaintiffs’ failure to apply for work stemmed from very discriminatory practice they had complained about.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Retaliation