What Constitutes an Adverse Employment Action?

So, your employer is discriminating against you? Well, to be legally actionable, your employer must take an action against you that is tangible. Granted, tangible means many things to different people. Even Judges across the United States have had many different opinions on what a tangible adverse employment action means. Some Judges have ruled that a tangible employment action included such things as termination or demotion (i.e., actions that affected the employee's benefits). Other Judges have defined it more liberally and concluded that an adverse employment action is any action that targets an employee and creates any disparate treatment. In a landmark June 2006 decision, the Supreme Court in White v. Burlington defined an adverse employment action as any action by the employer that would dissuade a reasonable employee from having asserted a right. This means that any action that is taken by an employer towards an employee may be construed as a legally adverse employment action if it is reasonable to construe it as such (i.e., change in schedule, change in assignments). The end result is that more of these cases will be going to a Jury. This case was definitely a win for employees.