WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A railroad worker who said she was punished on the job after complaining of sexual harassment won a unanimous victory Thursday at the Supreme Court, which upheld a jury award that held her supervisors accountable.
The issue resolved around a federal law known as Title VII, which prohibits employers from retaliating against workers claiming sex or race discrimination.
"The anti-retaliation provision protects an individual not from all retaliation, but from retaliation that produces injury or harm," wrote Justice Stephen Breyer for the other eight benchmates. "We believe that there was a sufficient evidentiary basis to support the jury's verdict."
Three months into her job as a forklift operator at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway yard in Memphis, Tennessee, Sheila White complained about sexual harassment and discrimination by her male boss, who had never supervised a woman worker before.
Her immediate supervisor was investigated, suspended and ordered to take sensitivity training. But ten days after making her allegations, White was transferred to work as a regular track laborer, a more physically demanding yet equal paying job.
After White complained to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was suspended without pay for 37 days for "insubordination." Lawyers for the railroad argued that her job transfer caused her to suffer "no economic effect."
The case was closely watched by businesses and worker-rights advocates.
In another decision, the Supreme Court placed a greater legal burden on criminal defendants seeking to prove they were coerced into committing a felony.
