Black Cleveland EMS Captains Can Sue for Bias Over Shift Change

Cleveland must face revived bias claims for assigning Black EMS captains to shifts based on race, the Sixth Circuit said, ruling that employees’ shifts count as “terms” of employment under federal workplace anti-discrimination law even though no loss of pay was involved.

Each fall, captains bid on their schedules for the upcoming year. The city uses a seniority-based bidding system to assign shifts, giving longer-tenured captains shift preference—a “privilege” of employment, the court said.

When, as here, race is a basis for a shift change that denies the privileges of that employee’s seniority, the employer has unlawfully discriminated on the ...