Filing deadline sinks worker’s federal discrimination claims against Solidarity Center

In May 2020, she received an email from human resources saying she would be demoted. The move took effect that July. She later alleged it cut her pay, benefits, and responsibilities, that she was denied a contractual step increase, and that she was shut out of key communications and leadership opportunities because of her race, sex, and protected activity. 

The timing is what should give HR teams pause. Under Title VII, an employee who first uses a state or local agency must file a charge within 300 days of the act in question. She filed with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and the EEOC on July 1, 2021, and even checked a box marking the conduct a “continuing action.” But her charges described only events from before September 2020 – the alleged harassment and the demotion. The later incidents surfaced for the first time in an August 2022 brief, by which point even her most recent allegation was out of time. 

The court rejected her argument that the events added up to one “continuing violation.” Each act – the alleged harassment, the demotion, the denied raise – started its own clock, and each clock had run. 

The judge took no position on the merits. The dismissal was procedural. Her claims under the D.C. Human Rights Act, which has no comparable exhaustion requirement, survived and were sent back to D.C. Superior Court. 

The lesson is in the timing. Title VII’s charge-filing deadlines are strict, and a claim can fall apart on timing alone – no matter how the underlying dispute might have played out. When an act allegedly happened, and when it was formally raised, can decide a case long before the facts are weighed.