Gerald Skoning quoted in Chicago Sun-Times "Top Court limits pay discrimination suits"
05/31/2007
In its May 30, 2007 article, “Top Court limits pay discrimination suits,” the Chicago Sun-Times quotes Gerald Skoning concerning the ramifications of the May 29th U. S. Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear. The article notes that, “The 1964 Civil Rights Act typically gives workers 180 days from the time of the alleged discrimination to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The question was whether workers can claim that their most recent paychecks are affected by bias that took place outside the 180-day window, which courts had previously allowed.” Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority decision, stating that the plaintiff’s complaint had to be based on a discrete infraction of the Act and filed within the 180-daywindow, rejecting the plaintiff’s claim that each paycheck she received was a separate infraction. Gerald pointed out that the decision, “effectively protects employers from the burden of defending employment decisions that are long past…. Goodyear would have been faced with defending itself on a decision that was made 20 years ago."
