Discriminatory Transfer. An employee of the Westchester County Department of Social Services filed complaints against the County and DSS to the EEOC and the New York State Division of Human Rights, claiming that they had discriminated against him on the grounds of his age, race, gender and religion. He was transferred out of his job to another position. Although the transfer did not affect his job title, job grade, salary, benefits or hours of work, he had been stipped of his prior responsibilities, which were replaced by menial tasks. The employee brought a retailiation claim. The district court granted the County's motion for summary judgment, holding that the employee had not shown sufficient evidence that he had suffered an adverse employment action.

The Second Circuit reversed, holding that there was genuine triable issue of fact as to whether the employee's reassignment dould well have dissuaded a reasonable employee in his position from complaining of unlawful discrimination. The case was remanded to the district court for further proceedings.

The decision in Kessler v. Westchester County Department of Social Services can be found here.