You have an employee handbook, an anti-harassment policy, training, the whole nine. But, sometimes, notwithstanding your best efforts to create a positive, respectful workplace, you receive a complaint from an employee who claims to be the victim of harassment based on [insert protected class]. All the prophylactic measures you’ve already…
Psst. Want the secret to spotting a potential age discrimination claim a mile away? I’ve got it for you after the jump. * * * I’m going to make this real easy for you. DON’T CALL ANY EMPLOYEE OLD….EVER! And, just so we’re clear, “old mother******” is no good either.…
Congratulations! Your fitness-for-duty employee medical examinations are job-related or consistent with business necessity. So, they pass muster under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But, what about the medical information you request from employees in connection with those exams? Oh yeah, there’s that too… Ask for too much info and you…
Hey, I don’t make this stuff up. I just blog about it. More after the jump… * * * The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that employers provide reasonable accommodation to employees with disabilities when doing so will allow them to perform the essential functions of their job. In Assaturian…
See how a federal appellate court shut out a plaintiff’s claims of retaliation after she was fired for forwarding confidential documents to herself, purportedly to preserve evidence for an age-discrimination lawsuit filed by a former coworker. What I did there, you see that? After the jump… * * * In…
According to the EEOC, if men can only train men, and women only women, that may be discrimination. But, let’s see what a federal court has to say about that after the jump… * * * New Prime, Inc. is one of the largest trucking companies in the USA. The…
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on a number of protected classes. Sexual orientation isn’t one of those protected classes specifically listed in the statute. So, if an employee complains about sexual-orientation harassment and is later fired because she complained, then that won’t create…
*** whistles *** The word on the street according to Kevin McGowan at Bloomberg/BNA (here $$$) is that U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien (D) has decided not to seek renomination to the EEOC. Originally an Obama recess-appointment, the Senate confirmed Ms. Berrien as EEOC Chair in…
Filed under: duh! More on this one after the jump… * * * Let’s assume that you have an employee who commits a terminable offense. For example, in Martins v. Rhode Island Hospital, surveillance cameras and the Hospital’s employee ID swipe system suggested that Martins left work for approximately four…
How do you think that worked out? (I’ve got a pretty good guess too). After the jump, let’s see if we’re right. * * * In EEOC v. Midwest Regional Medical Center, LLC (yes, the employer-defendant was a friggin’ hospital!!!), the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit on…