Naomi Shatz Celebrates Massachusetts Ruling Protecting Employees against Retaliation

Naomi Shatz (’08), Partner at Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP, authored an article for the Boston Lawyer Blog regarding the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Meehan v. Medical Information Technology, Inc. holding that employers cannot retaliate against employees who exercise their statutory rights to file rebuttals in their personnel record and that a termination in retaliation for an employee exercising their rights under the personnel records statute violates the Commonwealth’s public policy (“SJC Protects Employees from Retaliation in New Decision,” Dec. 20). “This holding will extend beyond the context of the Meehan case; where the Legislature has created a statutory right, Meehan should be read to mean that the exercise of that right will always be protected from retaliation under the public policy exception, even if the statute itself does not contain an anti-retaliation provision. . . . The SJC properly corrected the Appeals Court’s improper narrowing of employee rights. This decision gives meaning to the rights the Legislature granted employees in the personnel record statute; ensuring that employees can exercise those rights free from retaliation.”
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