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Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment

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Three ways NJ employers can prepare now for “the most sweeping equal pay legislation in America.”

I am pleased to share my guest contribution to the Philadelphia Business Journal. If you subscribe to this blog to receive daily emails, you must update your subscription preferences. You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), that comes into effect May 25, 2018. To help…

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Two important announcements and an ADA lesson “straight out of the school of hard knocks.”

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/megaphone-speaker-speakers-speak-3272636/) Here are the important announcements: First, if you subscribe to this blog to receive daily emails, you must update your subscription preferences.  You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), that comes into effect May 25, 2018. To help comply with GDPR…

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If you’re considering forcing your employees to practice the “Onionhead” religion, well, don’t.

Image Credit: FreeStockPhotos.biz (http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/15030) We employment lawyers have stories upon stories. When it comes to the employer-employee relationship, especially when that relationship hits the skids, we’ve seen it all. But, every once in a while there comes a story that even raises my eyebrows. Last week, the EEOC issued a…

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A federal judge put the kibosh on Philly’s salary-history ban. Well, not really.

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/interview-job-icon-job-interview-1018333/) Last year, Philadelphia passed a law that banned local employers from asking individuals about their salary history. The purpose of the law was to help close the wage gap between men and women. Then the local Chamber of Commerce went to federal court to attempt to block…

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“Historic, sweeping equal pay legislation” passes in New Jersey. Is your business ready?

By Darwinek [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia CommonsIn late March, I blogged here about how it was only a matter of time before the State of New Jersey would require local employers to provide men and women the same pay and benefits for performing substantially similar work. Well, mark your…

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Want to see me testify today on harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace? Here’s how…

Ad Meskens [Attribution, CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], from Wikimedia CommonsI’ll be testifying today before the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee at a public hearing on harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace. I should be up at about 10:50 AM, when I will testify for five minutes on: the…

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Must you produce the workplace investigation report prepared to defend a sexual harassment lawsuit?

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/safe-vault-lockbox-safekeeping-30110/) A female employee has just complained to HR that the CEO harassed her. This complaint is the third one against the same alleged harasser. So, you hire an outside attorney to conduct a full investigation anticipating that there might be subsequent litigation. The attorney investigates and furnishes…

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Starbucks details how, in one afternoon, it will train about 175K employees on racial bias

Screenshot taken from https://news.starbucks.com/press-releases/starbucks-to-close-stores-nationwide-for-racial-bias-education-may-29 In a video posted on the company’s website, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson followed up his initial apology for last week’s incident in Philadelphia with additional details on how the company would try to avoid a similar event in the future. Here’s more from the Starbucks press release: Starbucks…

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Now THIS right here is some hecka-cold retaliation (allegedly)

Image credit: PublicDomainPictures.net (https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=139332&picture=stick-family)   It’s one thing to terminate an employee for complaining that she is being sexually harassed at work. But, when you (allegedly) fire her son and fiancé too without justification, that’s stone cold! Not that Stone Cold. But, according to the EEOC, it’s pretty darn bad.…

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Bookmark This: Starbucks and a lesson on leadership and accountability

Screenshot taken from https://news.starbucks.com/views/a-follow-up-message-from-starbucks-ceo-in-philadelphia Starbucks was riding a pretty good HR streak in 2018. Among other things, the coffee giant had attained 100% gender and racial equality and announced investments in paid leave. Yep, things were lookin’ really good for Starbucks. Then, last week, things got really bad. An arrest…