American Water Works Employee to Get Retaliatory Firing Trial

An American Water Works Service Co. manager’s sending a worker’s performance evaluation to human resources more than two weeks before the end of the evaluation period could help show the worker was fired because she complained about age and sex bias, a New Jersey federal judge ruled.

Sylvia Hellman also can point to the close timing—two months—between the email she sent to HR complaining that discriminatory animus drove risk management director Roger Hammer’s decision to put her on the performance enhancement plan and his other mistreatment, the court said Wednesday.

But because Hellman had already been placed on the PEP ...