Vertex Worker Gets Bias Trial After 18 Years Without a Promotion

A Chinese software engineer who wasn’t promoted in his more than 18 years with Vertex Inc. and fired after raising concerns about possible discrimination was wrongly denied a trial, the Third Circuit ruled Thursday.

How an employer perceives a worker’s potential protected activity is a factor in determining whether the worker opposed bias for purposes of establishing a retaliation claim, the Philadelphia-based appeals court said. It also reaffirmed that a worker doesn’t need to expressly say they are being discriminated against to engage in protected activity under federal or state anti-bias laws.

A jury could therefore find Qing Qin opposed ...