National Origin Employment Discrimination Covers Europeans

Recently, a federal judge in Virginia was presented with the novel legal issue of whether someone of European descent is covered under the national origin protections of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act.

A Caucasian professor with a Ph.D. from Harvard applied for several different teaching positions at Northern Virginia Community College.  Each time a minority candidate was selected over him: first, a native of India; second, a native of Korea; third, a native of Senegal; and fourth, another native of India.  The community college said he was not selected for the positions because he did not provide enough evidence of outstanding teaching skills.  The professor countered by citing his prior teaching positions at Harvard, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and The Naval Academy.

The professor sued the community college for discrimination based on national origin, claiming that his European ancestry was viewed as a negative at Northern Virginia Community College where minorities make up the majority of the student body.  The community college countered that European does not constitute a protected national origin under federal discrimination law because there is such a variation of cultures among the countries of Europe.

A federal judge in Alexandria agreed with the professor that European is a protected class.  The court reasoned that despite differences from one country to the next, Europe has enough commonality in terms of people, culture and linguistics to make it an identifiable place of national origin.

This turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for the professor, however, because the court ultimately found against him on his substantive discrimination claim against Northern Virginia Community College.  The court concluded that despite his Ivy League credentials, the professor failed to provide enough peer references and prior teaching accolades compared with the candidates who were ultimately chosen over him.

Declan Leonard is managing partner of the Washington, DC regional business law firm Berenzweig Leonard, LLP. He can be reached at DLeonard@BerenzweigLaw.com.

Are Child Care Duties Protected Under Federal Workplace Laws?

A recent case from the Alexandria, Virginia Federal Court addressed the issue of whether an employee’s child care responsibilities were protected under federal discrimination laws.  A male pharmaceutical sales rep was supposed to start work each day at 8:00 a.m.  Under an arrangement he had with his working wife, however, he needed to drop his child off at school at 8:30 a.m. four days a week, and therefore he could not start work on those days until roughly 9:00 a.m.  His supervisor told him that this later start time was not acceptable, and asked why his wife could not drop their child off at school instead.  The male rep was not the only employee who had kids, but he was the only male rep whose wife also worked outside the home.

The rep complained to Human Resources that he was being singled out because of his family responsibilities, and that the supervisor’s comments were based on a stereotype that “it’s the wife’s job” to do things such as taking the kids to school.  He eventually sued the company for gender discrimination.

A federal judge in Alexandria recently dismissed the employee’s case prior to trial, after concluding that the company’s 8:00 a.m. start time policy was applied uniformly to all employees, regardless of gender and regardless of whether an employee had children or not.  The court pointed out that federal discrimination laws do not protect against discrimination  that is based on caregiver responsibilities.  The court added that it would be a violation of federal discrimination laws if the company had treated mothers differently than fathers in terms of scheduling.

Had the company been in the District of Columbia however, the result may have been different as D.C. is one of two states (Alaska being the other) that explicitly outlaws discrimination in the workplace based on family responsibilities.  

Declan Leonard is managing partner of the Washington, DC regional business law firm Berenzweig Leonard, LLP. He can be reached at DLeonard@BerenzweigLaw.com.