Posted on 07/26/2005 5:57:42 AM PDT by MikeJ75
"A good name," wrote Cervantes, "is better than riches."
Mamdouh El-Hakem would agree. After spending years fighting a former employer who thought his name wasn't good enough, El-Hakem was vindicated by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week with a modest amount of money -- and an opinion that reaffirms the value of his name.
In a ruling that bolsters plaintiff arguments that discrimination can take many forms, the 9th Circuit said that Gregg Young, the CEO of BJY Inc. should not have insisted on calling El-Hakem "Manny." Or, for that matter, "Hank."
"Young intended to discriminate against El-Hakem's Arabic name in favor of a non-Arabic name," Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote for a three-judge panel, "first by altering Mamdouh to 'Manny' and then by changing Hakem to 'Hank.'"
The ruling is the latest to reinforce the view that a wide range of behavior can create a hostile work environment, along with liability for employers who allow harassment.
"It's a broadening of the application of pre-existing law," said Barbara Lawless, a partner with the plaintiff firm Lawless & Lawless. "Definitely, there's a trend of applying the law more liberally."
The trend, she said, was also clear in last week's California Supreme Court decision that sexual favoritism was a form of workplace discrimination. That ruling came in a case that Lawless brought in the trial court.
Employment defense lawyers agreed with Lawless -- and with the court -- that imposing a name change amounted to discrimination, even if racial or ethnic epithets were never used.
"It's a message to employers that these kinds of actions, which may seem insignificant or trivial to some people, will lead to liability," said Richard Curiale, a partner at Curiale Dellaverson Hirschfeld & Kraemer who represents employers.
He said the most surprising part of the case is that it went as far as the 9th Circuit. "I would have said, 'Let's settle the case, or we'll lose,'" he said, adding that in training courses his firm tells managers to avoid behavior that treats employees differently.
Jeffrey Wohl, a partner with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker who defends employers, also agreed with the court. He said that employers should understand that differential treatment for any reason can open a company up to litigation.
"Discrimination means treating people differently and adversely because of a particular characteristic," he said. But this broad definition, he added, isn't always clear to employers.
The ultimate lesson employers should learn from the opinion, Wohl added, is that in certain situations, even the names "Manny" and "Hank" -- hardly racial epithets on their own -- can be as damaging as "the n-word."
"I think it's yet another example that context is everything," he said.
"Raghead" is a good nickname for any muslim coworker.
Eventually, businesses will only hire white males who have no rights to sue about anything because these frivolous lawsuits are destroying America's small businesses. Every minority and ethnic group member who files suit at the drop of a hat for any hint of OFFENDING behavior are telling employers that it is safer to hire those exactly like themselves to avoid said lawsuits. It's called cutting your nose off to spite your face.
When did [the "N" word] rise to the level of the "F" word?
LOL. That is truly hilarious. Even better than Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.
I think there are three judges on a Court of Appeals ... but however many, I'll bet none of them could pronounce this name correctly. I know I can't.
"Unemployed" is one.
Employers who have to guess whether any particular decision is privately offensive to this or that supersensitive employee and may result in a business-bankrupting lawsuit will be less likely to hire him to begin with.
I know, I know, I was just kidding because you walked into that one.
And neither of them intended the comment to be taken literally. They were both talking about reputation. So, actually, the quote is being used out of context.
My brother worked with a muslim with an unpronounceable name. His nickname was "Jock", short for "Camel Jockey". He liked the name so much he referred to himself by it -- right up to the time he stole fifty bucks from someone else's locker. Then they just called him "Gone".
As I told a møøselimb former co-worker: "It's not the color of your skin that annoys me - it's the thinness!"
To he surprise of nobody, Therese Lawless, one of the 2 partners of Lawless & Lawless, is a BIGTIME contributor to the Democrat Party. Federal records show she contributed to the presidential campaigns of Howard Dean, John Edwards and Dick Gephardt, Barbara Boxer's senatorial campaign, and a host of other left-wing Democrats.
I hope some former co-workers don't hear about this. At a place I used to work, there were three Arabs, two Mohammed's and an 'Abro'. Their nicknames were 'Mo', 'Mo2' and 'Eyebrow', respectively.
A further search shows that Theresa Lawless' husband, James Sturdevant, contributed to the presidential campaigns of Gephardt, Edwards and Kerry, the DNC Senatorial Committee, the DNC Congressional Committee, the Ohio Democrat Party ($10,000!), Dem Senators Bayh, Harry Reid, Feingold, Feinstein, Murray and a host of Dem Senate and Congressional candidates.
What is frustrating is that the F word is as common amongst women and children as it is amongst men.
Oh, oh! Bush is in trouble...
Nicknames are now verboten!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.