The Employer’s Legal Advisor

Constructive Discharge and Other Claims

I remember one case in which employees in a rural area had seen too many African-American comics on cable TV using the “N” word. In a misplaced effort at camaraderie with Charles, an African-American employee, Gene, a white fellow worker, repeated one of those offensive jokes while on a fishing trip. (The trip was strictly among employees and had nothing to do with the employer.) At some later point, Charles became angry with the company for reasons having nothing to do with race (he was made to pay for equipment he damaged). He quit and filed a lawsuit claiming he’d been “constructively discharged.” Constructive discharge is a legal theory used by plaintiffs who quit their employment allegedly because ...