Halunen & Associates

Joni Thome and Frances Baillon represented Ellen Bahr, a former employee, in her reprisal discrimination suit against her former employer, Capella University. The former employee vocally opposed the manner in which her former employer was treating her subordinate employee, an African-American woman. The former employee’s supervisor instructed her to treat the subordinate employee differently because of her race. The company’s refusal to place the subordinate employee on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), caused the former employee’s own job performance to suffer. She spoke out against the treatment which she believed to be unfairly discriminatory toward that minority employee and the other non-minority employees. Just weeks after opposing this treatment, she was fired..

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the former employee. (Click here to read the Court of Appeals’ opinion). It found the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) requires that an employee claiming retaliation allege specific facts to support a claim of a good-faith, reasonable belief that an employment practice was discriminatory; and further, the employee need not prove that the practice opposed was, in fact, a violation of law.

The company appealed the case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Frances Baillon presented oral argument before the Minnesota Supreme Court on behalf of the former employee. The argument centered around whether, in order to gain protected status under the MHRA, an employee must report an actual violation of the law, or just a reasonable, good faith belief that a violation occurred. Also at issue was whether the act of not placing an employee on a PIP because of her race was, in and of itself, a violation of the MHRA.

The parties are awaiting the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling.