Dorsey attorney Joel O'Malley surveys in LawCrossing the fluctuating fortunes of office thermostat litigation. According to O'Malley, employers face continued lawsuits over the critical workplace decision of the office thermostat setting. Surveys have shown the most common workplace complaint among white-collar employees is "office too cold," while the second-most-common is "office too hot."
O'Malley says that employees making discrimination or retaliation claims based on thermostat settings generally get the cold shoulder from courts. Nonetheless, he warns that the recent U.S. Supreme Court expansion of what constitutes retaliation under Title VII in Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White could warm the prospects for future thermostat-based lawsuits.
"Turning Up the Heat on Employers: Thermostat Discrimination and Retaliation" was published by LawCrossing, July 13, 2007.