How many claims were filed? And how much money did the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recover for individuals? Find out after the jump… * * * According to this November 15, 2011 press release from the EEOC, the number of discrimination claims are skyrocketing: The EEOC received a record…
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
Post-employment acts don’t create a hostile work environment
When Krysten Overly, a financial advisor at a bank, told her male boss that she was resigning, Overly claims that he grabbed Overly’s arm to push her out the door. And as Overly left her boss’s office, he yelled, “Good riddance, bitch!” What a jerk! But, as a matter of…
Fact or Fiction: A hostile work environment requires bad motives
That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post”. So, let’s get right to today’s question: If a former employee sues for discrimination, claiming to have been subjected to…
Herman Cain, sexual harassment, and 10 lessons for employers
Speak into a microphone and point one finger in the air if your Halloween completely sucked. Politico has reported that the National Restaurant Association paid out a five-figure settlement to two women who accused Herman Cain of making sexually suggestive comments. Details on the allegations and lessons that employers can…
90,000 women claim Wal-Mart discriminated against them
Back in June, the United States Supreme Court ruled here that a class of 1.5 million women could not pursue gender discrimination claims together against Wal-Mart because they lacked a common injury. If, at first, you don’t succeed, file this Complaint in California on behalf of a class of only…
Is your arbitration agreement worth the paper it’s printed on?
Courts have blessed written agreements between employer and employee to submit federal discrimination claims to arbitration. Here is an example. But, there’s legal and then there’s doing right. After the jump, how one employer got it wrong. Very wrong. Plus, what you can do to make sure that your business…
Employee suing for AGE bias claims judge is too OLD to preside
From the sublime to the ridiculous, the NY Daily News reports here that a 60-year-old musician suing for age discrimination claims that the presiding 88-year-old Manhattan judge is too old to hear the case. According to the NY Daily News story, the plaintiff, who was representing himself before his case…
Equal-opportunity jerks take the “sex” out of sexual harassment
To prove sexual harassment, a plaintiff must have been subjected to pervasive or severe behavior that would make the plaintiff (and a reasonable person in the plaintiff’s shoes) believe that the working environment are hostile or abusive. Wait, I’m forgetting something. Oh yeah, the complained-of conduct must only be…
The ADA does not force employers to provide indefinite leave
Back in June, I discussed here how the EEOC was discussing the use of leave from work as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. The question I asked back then was how much leave is reasonable? When is enough, enough? Well, I can tell you now — and I suppose I…
Can Homer Simpson sue Mr. Burns for disability bias, and win?
In yesterday’s post, we looked at whether a morbidly-obese employee is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Today, let’s apply yesterday’s discussion to a “real-world” example. Is Homer Simpson disabled? And is the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant legally obligated to offer him a reasonable accommodation? The answers after the…