Because all the other blogs will say “paramour” or “lover” in the lede, and I need to remain relevant (or “down,” if you will) with my more trendy readers. Over the weekend, I read this case in which a male plaintiff alleged discrimination because his supervisor was allegedly schtupping a…
Articles Posted in Gender
When the supervisor offers an employee $$$ to have sex with his wife, that’s not gender bias, you guys
Terribly sorry about the confusion created by my sloppy use of possessive pronouns in today’s lede. The “his” wife refers to the employee’s wife. Otherwise, this post doesn’t make any sense, does it? (Don’t spend too much time contemplating the question, ok). Yep, just another Tuesday at The Employer Handbook.…
Judge dismisses “Borgata Babes'” claims of weight discrimination
Sex sells. So, when 22 female cocktail servers at an Atlantic City casino pursued claims of discrimination based on their appearance, it came as little shock to me that the judge wasn’t buying. Last month, a New Jersey state court dismissed a lawsuit against the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa,…
900,000 reasons not to judge a book by its cover
You’ve probably heard of this It’s Just Lunch, a Hallandale Beach-based company, even though you may not realize it. I’ll give you a hint. Have you flown recently? Yeah, that’s right. It’s Just Lunch is a matchmaking service that advertises around page 55 of the in-flight magazine of just about…
Court countenances canning complainers of consensual canoodling
In Centucky Kentucky, it’s not retaliation to fire employees who complain about sexual favoritism. Then again making apple-pie moonshine and using a butcher cleaver to slice off the arm of a Detroit gangster isn’t frowned upon either. At least, that’s what watching Justified teaches me. But even in Kentucky, they…
It’s legal to fire a female employee because of her “irresistible attraction”
Cue music. Last week, a unanimous Iowa Supreme Court held (here) that it was ok for a male boss to fire a female employee — a model employee — out of concern that he would eventually succumb and do things with her that could jeopardize his marriage. That has to…
Boy meets girl, dates girl, breaks up, calls girl “whore,” gets fired, sues for discrimination
Image credit: atom.smasher.org, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. When a male employee texted his female co-worker and former girlfriend that she was a “whore” and later ignored two protective orders that the female co-worker had taken out against him, I wonder if he was thinking, “Maybe,…
New equal-rights rules for NJ employers take effect next month
I’d better remember to post this now before I get bitten and turn into a zombie and munch on your face.. [Note to self: Less of “The Walking Dead,” more sleep]. On November 19, 2012, this new law will take effect in NJ, which will require employers of 50…
Is an employee with managerial duties “similarly situated” to a manager?
Maybe it’s the luck of the draw, but most of the discrimination cases I defend are hostile work environment cases, where an alleged harasser supposedly has made an employee-victim’s life miserable with certain comments, jokes, gestures, touchings, you name it. Far less often do I encounter disparate-treatment claims. A…
“How can I keep the white girl?”
[Editor’s Note: Because “Playing the Race Card” was already taken] The title of this post is comprised of the seven poorly-chosen words from a Vice President of Operations at a Detroit casino right before the casino terminated a white employee for allegedly botching supervision of a dealer card shuffle. What…