A manager who was demoted after a voluntary polygraph showed “deception” on his part and who subsequently resigned can proceed with his lawsuit against the company for violations of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, a federal district court rules.

During an investigation into alleged employee misconduct, the manager was asked to submit to a voluntary polygraph test. After he took the test, several company executives met with him and told him that the results showed “deception.” The manager subsequently refused to divulge further information about the incident, and he was demoted and reassigned due to the company’s concerns about “disloyalty, lack of candor, and poor judgment.” The manager submitted a two-week notice of resignation, and contends that he was terminated on that same day.

In the present case, the company says that the employee had made false statements on his application form, but the court says that even assuming that this was true, it did not give the company “license to disregard the clear provisions of the EPPA by asking [the manager] to take a polygraph and by referring to and discussing the test’s results with him.”

“The coverage of the EPPA is broad—an employer violates [the law] by merely suggesting, even indirectly, that an employee submit to a polygraph,” the court observes. Further, the manager “presented considerable evidence” that the polygraph test was at least “a factor” in his demotion, the court says, ordering the case to trial. Harmon v. CB Squared Services Inc.