I got an email last night from a U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission Commissioner. That email explained why the new “Know Your Rights” Poster that the EEOC touted in a new release was nowhere to be found for much of the day yesterday. The EEOC uploaded a version of…
Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced here that it had released an updated version of the existing “Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law” poster. The EEOC’s release touts a web page for the poster, which provides information about the poster and where to post it. There’s even supposed…
GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Yesterday, we discussed why employers must adopt comprehensive, well-known anti-discrimination policies. That way, victims know what to do to get their complaints of harassment addressed. Today, we’re going to focus on the importance of a prompt employer response that is reasonably designed to…
Oooooh…this one is going to be really good! There’s usually a certain formula when I invite other attorneys to join me to chat on The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Happy Hour. We pick an employment law topic, dissect it for an hour, and sprinkle in some audience Q&A. For example,…
This one (unlike that one) wasn’t even worth five cents. I suppose that’s what happens when you work for an airline and claim gender discrimination after getting fired for posting this publicly on your personal Facebook page: If I were Black in America, I think I’d get down on my…
How broad is the Americans with Disabilities Act‘s definition of “disability”? It’s so broad, concluded the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in this recent decision, that an employee can show that he is disabled based on his say-so. The plaintiff was the Chief Electrical Inspector of a municipality. In October 2014,…
Today, we will have a lesson on the differences between “direct” and “circumstantial” evidence of discrimination. Plaintiffs may prove discrimination through direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, or both. Circumstantial evidence allows the factfinder to infer discrimination. For example, a company fires a black employee for sleeping on the job but doesn’t…
It takes a lot to establish what the law considers a hostile work environment. A former warehouse manager learned this lesson the hard way when a federal judge dismissed her complaint with prejudice before she even got the chance to take any discovery. Here are the facts of the case…
Here’s a situation that may arise from time to time. Perhaps, you’ve dealt with it too. One employee complains to the company about a co-worker’s alleged unwanted sexual contact in the workplace. So, what does the company do? Title VII Of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and any number…
That’s the vibe I got from reading this recent Fifth Circuit decision affirming the lower court’s dismissal of age discrimination claims. The plaintiff was one of five Zone Human Resources Directors (ZHRDs) for the defendant. Each ZHRD had its own zone. In 2018, the defendant decided that each ZHRD would…