March 2024 - Parks and Recreation - 31

duct, (3) whether the conduct is physically threatening
or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance, and (4)
whether the conduct unreasonably interferes with the employee's
work performance.
In addition, to succeed in his Title VII claim, the federal
district court noted Plaintiff would have to " show
that there is a basis for imputing the conduct that created
the hostile environment to the employer " :
When harassment is perpetrated by the plaintiff's
coworkers, an employer will be liable if the plaintiff
demonstrates that the employer either provided no reasonable
avenue for complaint or knew of the harassment
but did nothing about it.
Under the alleged circumstances in this particular
case, the federal district court found Plaintiff had indeed
" set forth sufficient evidence of racial and religious
harassment such that a reasonable jury could
find that the conditions of his employment were altered
and that the incidents he proffers created an
abusive working environment. " In so doing, the court
characterized the " noose " as " a symbol of racial violence "
that " could amount to severe conduct sufficient
to support an inference that the workplace is hostile to
Black employees. " Moreover, according to the court,
" perhaps no single act can more quickly alter the conditions
of employment and create an abusive working
environment than the use of an unambiguously racial
epithet.... " As a result, the federal district court held
Plaintiff had " clearly met the objective standard for a
hostile work environment. "
Conduct Imputed to Employer
Having established that " a jury could find that his coworkers'
behavior created an objectively and subjectively
hostile work environment, " the federal district
court would still require Plaintiff to " establish a basis
for imputing this conduct to his employer. "
As described by the court, Plaintiff claimed his supervisors,
FT and LW, had ignored him and " nothing changed "
after Plaintiff complained about racist comments, including
coworker FC's showing Plaintiff " a noose on his
phone and threatened to hang him. " In response, Defendants
denied Plaintiff ever complained to his supervisors
and argued these were " baseless assertions. "
The federal district court found resolution of these
two conflicting accounts presented " factual questions
for a jury " to determine whether Plaintiff's allegations
were " sufficient to impute the objectionable conduct to
Defendants. " As a result, the court denied Defendants'
motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff's hostile
work environment claim.
Discrimination Claim
The federal district court then considered Defendants'
motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff's racial discrimination
claims. As described by the federal district
court, the " relevant framework " for evaluating Plaintiff's
discrimination claims under Title VII would be
analyzed and evaluated under the following " burden
shifting framework " :
The plaintiff in such a case must first establish, by a
preponderance of the evidence, a prima facie case of racial
discrimination. Establishment of the prima facie case in
effect creates a presumption that the employer unlawfully
discriminated against the employee. [A " prima facie case "
refers to the initial examination of a claim which contains
sufficient evidence " on its face " to satisfy applicable legal
requirements, in this case Title VII discrimination.]
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March 2024 - Parks and Recreation

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