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The Employer Handbook BlogWhen a Discrimination Complaint Comes Wrapped in Profanity, Can HR Discipline the Employee?
Workplace profanity was business as usual, right up until it accompanied a complaint about racism.
A Judge’s Mug Was Crude Enough to Blog About. A Court Still Said It Wasn’t Harassment
A judge joked about his female employee’s sexuality and kept a mug decorated with cartoon genitalia in his own courtroom. The same judge required her to burn a full day of sick leave every time she needed an hour off for a medical appointment. A federal appeals court still ruled none of it was enough to reach a jury.
Tried to Waive the Jury, Failed. Got a Jury, It Didn’t Decide the Right Thing Either.
A supervisor approved the employee’s hairstyle at her interview, then sent her home for wearing it on day one. A federal appeals court says the case over what happened next isn’t finished, for either side.
Two Judges Just Volunteered to Kill a 50-Year-Old Discrimination Standard
An employee’s attempt to end fifty years of discrimination-law precedent went nowhere on appeal. But, two of the three judges who rejected it wrote separately to say they’d take another case just to do it.
A Supervisor Swore He Didn’t Know About the Disability. His Own Notes Said Otherwise.
A supervisor swore in an affidavit that he had no idea an employee was disabled. His own meeting notes said otherwise, and that contradiction just cost a Texas community college its win.
One and Done: Why the EEOC Couldn’t Prove “Ongoing” Harassment
One racial slur wasn’t enough to put a company on notice. A federal appeals court explained why and upheld the jury’s verdict for the employer.
An Employer Told Two Different Stories About One Firing. How Do You Think It’s Going?
An employer told the EEOC one story to get a discrimination charge dismissed as too late. It told the court a different story to win summary judgment. The judge noticed.
A Railroad Thought It Had Cracked the Code on FMLA Dishonesty. A Jury Gets to Decide If It Did.
Roughly one in ten of a railroad’s train and engine employees marked off using FMLA leave on Christmas Day. The railroad ran that spike through an algorithm, then a hearing, then a dishonesty finding, and a federal court just said a jury needs to check that whole chain.
An HR Manager Reported Retaliation. Then She Became a Retaliation Case Herself.
She reported the harassment and lost her job. Her supervisor testified that the man she reported wasn’t disciplined; he got training instead.
A $10+ Million Verdict Against SHRM. A Second Fight Over Who Pays It.
Last year, a jury hit the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the professional association many HR practitioners look to for certifications and guidance, with a $10 million punitive damages verdict. Now its own insurance company says that’s SHRM’s bill to pay, not theirs.