We have two employees with the same accounting/clerk civil service title in a government agency- a male over 55 and a female in her 30's. The male employee filed with Civil Service that he is working out of job title - the ruling came back that he was indeed working out of title. Management didn't like the answer, so their solution was to was to take the extra "out of title" duties away from him and give them to the female employee(with the same job title) and then give her the upgrade for extra duties.    The management's answer for why they are upgrading the female employee was because they "like" her better, she hangs out with them and flirts. Really - I'm not kidding - it's a serious boys club.  We had a few discrimination cases a couple years ago - disability and age that did not go well for the agency - they got rid of the management involved in that, but then replaced them politically appointed people who have no experience or cares about legal issues (did I mention it is a government agency).     The problem is HR can't just give it to her - it is a higher level civil service position and there will be a new list coming out shortly. The male employee has been on the list before and always scores well, while the female employee has always failed the test, which is also a good indication of the quality jobs they do. She's not on the current list. Does the male employee have any real legal grounds to file a discrimination or other complaint? Unless he is afraid of retaliation - which this manager has already demonstrated he does - it may be only a matter of time before we start another round of issues.  
Posted by hrgovern