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Simple English definitions for legal terms
tangible employment action
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A quick definition of tangible employment action:
A tangible employment action is a big change in someone's job, like getting hired, fired, or moved to a different job with more or less responsibility. It can also be a decision that affects someone's benefits, like not getting a raise or losing a private office. If a supervisor does something like threaten to fire someone to make them do something, that can also be a tangible employment action. But just getting moved to a different office or getting a bad performance review isn't enough. If someone is saying they were sexually harassed at work, they have to show that a tangible employment action was taken against them. If they can't, the employer can say they tried to stop the harassment and the person didn't do enough to stop it. If a supervisor makes someone quit their job because of harassment, that can also be a tangible employment action. But the person has to prove that the employer did something to make them quit.
A more thorough explanation:
A tangible employment action is a significant change in an employee's employment status, such as hiring, firing, failure to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibility, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits. It is an element of a Title VII action, which may hold an employer liable for the actions of a supervisor.
For example, a denial of a raise, loss of benefits specifically negotiated for in an employment contract, threats of discharge by a supervisor to coerce employees to comply with the supervisor's demand, and withholding a promotion or benefits for promotion for refusing to accept sexual advances from a supervisor are all considered tangible employment actions.
However, conditions such as reassignment to another office or downgraded job performance evaluations, by themselves, do not constitute a tangible employment action.
If an employee is alleging sexual harassment under Title VII, and no tangible employment action is found to be taken against the employee, then the employer-defendant may raise an affirmative defense to the action by showing that it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct the harassment, and the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventative or corrective opportunities or otherwise failed to avoid harm.
Constructive discharge by a supervisor can also qualify as a tangible employment action for which an employer is strictly liable under Title VII. However, a plaintiff is required to prove the elements of constructive discharge and that an official act of the employer underlies the constructive discharge.
Overall, a tangible employment action is a significant change in an employee's employment status that can hold an employer liable for the actions of a supervisor.