Labor & Employment Law

7th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds UPS no fraternization policy

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds UPS no fraternization policy
Source: Adjunct Law Prof Blog; http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/

Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2008, Mitchell H. Rubinstein, Esq., Adjunct Professor of Law, St. Johns Law School and New York Law School, All rights reserved.

In Ellis v. UPS, ___F.3d___(7th Cir. April 29, 2009), the 7th Circuit upheld UPS no fraternization policy against an attack under Title VII.

A black former manager was terminated for violating the company's nonfraternization policy because he dated and subsequently married a white hourly employee. In affirming the lower court's granting of summary judgment, the circuit states that plaintiff's failure to produce evidence that manager who fired him treated managers in same-race couples any differently bars his claim of racial discrimination.

The court noted that it is not endorsing the company's policy, which makes it a firing offense for a manager to date an hourly employee, even if the manager is not the worker's supervisor. As the court states: "Although UPS, for the reasons we have stated, comes out on top in this case, love and marriage are the losers," something just doesn't seem quite right about that."

This case demonstrates that employer no-dating and no fraternization policies are generally upheld unless they are some how applied in a discriminatory manner. The decision is well written and researchers and employment lawyers may want to take note.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on May 07, 2008 (boomark / email).