The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will hold a public meeting on the subject of pregnancy discrimination and caregiver issues at 9:30 a.m. today in Washington, DC. If you are in the area, feel free to stop by. The meeting is open to the public. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99j0zLuNhi8 According to this…
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
Pedophilia as a disability?!? #Vomit
Yesterday, Greece came through with a long-awaited economic reform deal. Congratulations to them. What I want to know, however, is what the heck the Greek government was thinking when it recently expanded a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. Bailout money back, please. At Res…
Adultery + “distressing” text messages = no sexual harassment
Hey there, Casanova. Dontchaknow that the victim always keeps the text messages? Always! But does the victim win the sexual-harassment case about which I am blogging after the jump? Hint: no. Oh, come on! Don’t let that deter you! Click through anyway to pad my hit count and because you…
What box got checked most at the EEOC in 2011?
For the second year in a row, it was retaliation. Of the nearly 100,000 Charges of Discrimination that employees filed with the EEOC in 2011, retaliation claims accounted for just over 37% of them. Race claims were just behind at 35.4%. Sex was third at 28.5%. A complete breakdown of…
Pepsi and Criminal Background Checks: Beyond the Buzz
Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Janette Levey Frisch. Janette is In-House Counsel at Joule, Inc. where she provides comprehensive legal representation and support to a staffing company with five subsidiaries throughout the East Coast. You can connect with Janette on Twitter here and on…
And the most ridiculous lawsuit of 2011 was…
According to FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org, the lawsuit that keeps those lawyer jokes flowing is… Convict sues couple he kidnapped for not helping him evade police. A man who kidnapped a couple at knifepoint while he was running from the police is now suing the victims, claiming that they promised to hide him…
SCOTUS: Religious groups nearly exempt from job-bias laws
Yesterday, in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment bar employment-discrimination lawsuits by ministers against their churches. More on this decision and some helpful reminders for private-sector employers after the jump……
PA companies offering severance to employees should read this…
Starting this year, employees who receive severance pay in excess of 40% of the average annual wage in Pennsylvania will have their unemployment compensation benefits offset. Currently, that 40% number is $17,853.00. As Jonathan Segal, Legislative Director for PA State Council of SHRM, notes here, employers should be very careful…
Can ADA-disabled employees be required to work overtime?
To prove disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a plaintiff, at a minimum, must prove that: she is disabled; she is otherwise qualified to perform the job requirements, with or without reasonable accommodation; and she was discharged (or otherwise suffered an adverse employment action) solely on account…
Your favorite “The Employer Handbook” posts from 2011
As the year draws to a close, let’s take a look back at the most popular posts at The Employer Handbook in 2011, based on number of hits: 5. Social media and the workplace. School teacher Natalie Munroe made several appearances on the blog this year. Remember her? She…