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The Employer Handbook BlogShe Requested a Pregnancy Accommodation. Her Overtime Disappeared. Then Her Job Did.
The employer approved light duty. Seventeen days later, it fired the pregnant employee over an alleged policy violation from two months earlier.
A Polygraph, Ayahuasca, and the Religious-Accommodation Claim That Survived
A job applicant told a polygraph examiner that she consumed ayahuasca as part of her religion. An agency adjudicator labeled it “recent illegal drug use,” and the tentative job offer disappeared.
He Allegedly Lied in His EEOC Charge. Firing Him Cost the Employer $250,000.
The employer thought it had caught an employee lying in an EEOC charge. Then it put that conclusion in the termination notice.
That second decision cost considerably more than the first. Continue reading
Seven Employment Claims Took the Stage. Lizzo’s Touring Company Was Good as H*ll at Defeating Them.
Lizzo’s touring company swept every remaining claim from a former wardrobe assistant’s lawsuit off the stage. The celebrity headline masks an evidence lesson.
That Time an AI Note-Taker Turned a Termination Call Into a Gender Bias Lawsuit
The employee left the termination call. Unfortunately for the company, its AI note-taker apparently did not. And it allegedly emailed her what the company representatives said next.
Can a Sexual Harassment Claim Discovered Mid-Arbitration Force the Entire Case into Court? A Federal Appellate Court Said Yes.
An arbitration agreement usually decides where an employment dispute will be heard. In this case, evidence uncovered during arbitration opened the door to court instead.
Remote Professor? A School’s No-Remote Rule Could Not Avoid an Accommodation Trial
A no-remote rule sounds straightforward. It became much less so when a professor with an autoimmune condition requested an accommodation.
The Protected-Leave Problem That May Be Hiding in Performance Metrics
Protected leave can be approved on paper and penalized in a spreadsheet. A federal judge just allowed fourteen employment claims to proceed over an allegedly leave-blind performance system.
A False Cancer Diagnosis Could Not Cure the Employer’s Very Real ADA Problem
He claimed that when he told his employer he had cancer, his boss reacted by saying, “Are you f*****g kidding me? Your obligations are here.” As it turned out, the diagnosis was wrong. That did not spare his employer from facing an ADA trial.
29 Absences, 120 Late Arrivals, and an HR Discrimination Claim That Punched Out Early.
Her job was tracking employee attendance. Unfortunately, someone was tracking hers, too.