Employment Issues

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Vance v. Ball State which further clarified what constitutes a “supervisor” under Title VII. In this case, the court held that an employer can be held vicariously liable under Title VII for the acts of its supervisors, i.e., those employees who are empowered to take “tangible employment actions: hire, fire, reassign and other actions resulting in substantive employment changes. However, the U.S. Supreme Court made equally clear that even if the employee does not have such power, courts are entitled to see the employee as a supervisor if the employer relies on the employee to make those substantive employment decisions. Read the case summary now to see how this decision may impact your school district.