Transfer and Reassignment Were Not “Adverse Employment Actions”; Disability Discrimination and Retaliation Claims Properly Dismissed

In Ragoo v. New York City Taxi & Limousine Comm’n, No. 101970/08, 2015 WL 6181750 (N.Y. App. Div. Oct. 22, 2015), the court affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s claims for retaliation and disability discrimination (failure to accommodate) under the New York State Human Rights Law because plaintiff failed to establish that she suffered an “adverse employment action”. The court explained:

Plaintiff’s transfer from defendant Taxi and Limousine Commission’s (TLC) office in Manhattan, to its office in Long Island City, Queens, and corresponding reassignment from the position of administrative assistant to TLC’s First Deputy Commissioner to administrative assistant to TLC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge was not an adverse employment action under the State HRL. Even assuming that the transfer and reassignment resulted in a change of plaintiff’s duties, the transfer was at most an alteration of her responsibilities, and not an adverse employment action, as she retained the terms and conditions of her employment, and her salary remained the same.

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