Pandemic didn’t take away right to discharge an employee who violates policy

In an unpublished opinion issued January 31, 2024, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all employers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia) dismissed a case without a trial in favor of an employer on disability-based discrimination and retaliation claims. The court reaffirmed previous findings by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 4th Circuit that four months between a protected act and a discharge decision isn’t sufficient to prove it was motivated by the protected act.

Here, that was true even though the employer never responded to the accommodation request an immunocompromised employee made during the COVID-19 pandemic. The court’s reasoning also reaffirms that evidence an employee violated company policy defeats a discrimination and retaliation claim even when the employee alleges she violated the policy out of a sense of responsibility for others’ health during a pandemic.

Facts