U.S. Supreme Court Has Just Lowered the Bar for Employee Discrimination Suits Based on Involuntary Lateral Transfers

The U.S. Supreme Court has just made it easier for employees who are involuntarily transferred to a lateral position, to pursue discrimination claims even when they retain the same pay, benefits, and supervisory status. 

In Muldrow v. CIty of St. Louis, Mo., decided a few days ago, on April 17, 2024, a female police sergeant was transferred from a specialized intelligence division to a new division that required her to work weekends.  She also lost her access to an unmarked vehicle, and her job would now involve more administrative matters than high-visibility matters.  Her pay and rank, however, remained the same.  Notwithstanding that the transfer did not result in any diminished compensation or other tangible benefits, she sued alleging that the transfer was discriminatory. 

The Supreme Court observed that Title VII prohibits employees from discriminating against an employee with respect to the employee’s “terms” and “conditions” of employment because of the employee’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin.  Under these particular circumstances, many lower courts previously required employees to show that a lateral transfer resulted in a “materially significant disadvantage” or had a “significant detrimental effect” or resulted in other material or serious levels of harm to the employee.  The Supreme Court expressed its disagreement with those courts.  In its 9-0 decision, it opined that Title VII only requires an employee to show that they suffered “some harm respecting an identifiable term or condition of employment.” According to the Court,  the phrase to “discriminate against,” just “means treat worse,” and Title VII does not say “anything about how much worse” and nothing suggests that an employee must meet “an elevated threshold of harm” to prove a case of discrimination.

The Bottom Line:  Given the employment law trends across the country, the decision was not unexpected.  So, employers take heed: just because an employee's transfer does not affect pay, rank, seniority or any other "financial" aspect of employment, almost any affect on the employee's conditions of employment, even if slight, may be sufficient to form the basis of a discrimination claim.