Ruling in retaliation case

Employees who cooperate with an internal investigation and report inappropriate behavior in the workplace are protected from retaliation under civil rights laws, the Supreme Court said Monday, strengthening the laws against sexual harassment on the job.

The 9-0 decision revives a civil rights suit by a veteran school district employee in Nashville who was accused of embezzlement and fired shortly after she reported that a male supervisor had grabbed his crotch and made crude comments to several women.

Vicky Crawford, the school employee, did not initiate the investigation of Dr. Gene Hughes, the district’s employee relations director. However, she agreed to be interviewed by a human resources officer who asked whether she had witnessed inappropriate behavior.

A decade ago, the Supreme Court said employers could shield themselves against sexual harassment suits by adopting strong policies against harassment in their work sites. The justices said employees should be given a way to make confidential complaints if they suffered abuse.

But that approach was undercut when the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Crawford’s claim. The court ruled that only employees who initiate discrimination complaints are protected from dismissal or demotion.

The Supreme Court called that a “freakish rule” Monday and rejected it. If allowed to stand, it would create a “Catch-22” for employees where they could be asked to confirm bad behavior by a supervisor and be left vulnerable to firing for doing so, the justices said. Hughes, the target of the investigation in the Nashville schools, was not disciplined.

Federal civil rights law protects employees who file a discrimination complaint, and Justice David H. Souter wrote in the opinion that protection “extends to an employee who speaks out about discrimination not on her own initiative, but in answering questions during an employer’s internal investigation.” Any other rule would “largely undermine” the effort to get rid of harassment in the workplace, he said.

Reacting to the ruling, Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, said it was a “landmark day for all workers in America, and especially for women. Sexual harassment remains a pervasive problem in the workplace, and employees need full protection against retaliation when they have the courage to speak up to eliminate the problem.”

Her group said more than half of women in the U.S. face sexual harassment in the workplace. As many as 1 in 10 women may leave their job because of such harassment, the group said.

A second employment ruling handed down Monday puts employees and their beneficiaries on notice.

Money from a deceased employee’s pension plan will go to the named beneficiary, the court said, regardless of a divorce decree.

The decision deprives Kari Kennedy, the daughter of a Dupont Co. employee, the proceeds of her father’s pension. The money instead went to his ex-wife, even though she gave up her claim to it as part of a divorce decree.

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david.savage@latimes.com