Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 387844_pub.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 387844_pub.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/387844_pub.pdf ↗

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rehire provision, he will be required to return the $295,000 to the State, and the claims in

the initial action will then be reinstated.

D. The no-rehire provision and State policy

We now turn to whether the no-rehire provision violates public policy. Mr. Elgiadi

raises three arguments. However, the first two—the no-rehire provision violates both

WLAD’s public policy and WLAD’s antiretaliation statute—are substantially the same

argument. They both rely upon WLAD’s antiretaliation statute as construed by Zhu v.

North Central Educational Service District-ESD 171, 189 Wn.2d 607, 404 P.3d 504

(2017). We address this argument first.

9
For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.

No. 38784-4-III
Elgiadi v. Wash. State Univ.

1. Public policy does not require invalidating the no-rehire provision
and rescinding the settlement agreement

a. The antiretaliation statute prohibits an employer from refusing
to hire an employee because they opposed unlawful
discrimination

RCW 49.60.210(1) prohibits an employer from retaliating against any person for

opposing any practice forbidden by the WLAD. In Zhu, our high court was asked to

clarify the scope of this subsection.

Jin Zhu sued the Waterville School District for subjecting him to racially

motivated disparate treatment, a hostile work environment, and retaliation. Zhu, 189

Wn.2d at 610. After the parties settled, Zhu resigned from the Waterville School District

and sought a position with the North Central Educational Service District-ESD 171. Id.

ESD 171 did not hire Zhu. Id. at 611. Zhu filed a claim against ESD 171, asserting the

district refused to hire him in retaliation for his prior lawsuit against Waterville, thereby