District Judge holds that truck driver reassigned from long haul to local was not being retaliated against because he could now spend nights at home instead of out on the road therefore he had no claim.

It is illegal for an employer to retaliate against you if you file a discrimination claim with the EEOC or with your client. However, the retaliation must be “material adverse” before you can sue your employer. There have been many cases as to what is “materially adverse”. Recently in the case of Marlow v. McClatchy Bros., Inc., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121262 (S.D. Tex. 2016) a U.S. District Court held the reassigning a truck driver from a long haul to a local city driver. The Federal District Judge held that this reassignment was not “materially adverse” because truck drivers would prefer to be at home every night over being out on the road. The Court went on to state that the company also had good cause to reassign the driver because of employment issues. This case clearly shows that truck drivers face an up hill battle when it comes to retaliation claims. This case was only a district court case but it shows that when you are reassigned you need to be able to explain to the judge how such reassignments are detrimental to a driver and how this is really just a way to retaliate to try and convince the driver to resign.