Jarould [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia CommonsIt’s one thing to ask an employee returning to work from surgery, “How can we help you?” It’s quite another to insist upon work restrictions. The former is caring; the latter may be discrimination based on a perceived disability. Earlier this month, the U.S.…
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
I can do better than yesterday’s weak sauce “72 police officers” post
By Zuzu – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link “72 police officers in trouble over offensive Facebook posts is your wake-up call to reeducate employees about responsible social media.” Yeah, that takeaway stinks. I should have focused on the conscious bias instead. Yesterday, at the SHRM Conference, I was talking…
Even a sex museum must try to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace
Richardfalk2 [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsA former employee of the Museum of Sex in NYC is suing for sexual harassment. Several news outlets reported the story last week. Here’s a snippet from Snejana Farberov writing for the Daily Mail: A former staffer at the Museum of Sex in New York…
Can a marijuana dispensary be responsible for a manager’s sexual harassment?
Image by CMElixirs from Pixabay Or, stated differently, does a federal anti-discrimination law even cover a business that operates illegally under federal law? Yes, it does. In this recent decision, a Colorado federal court concluded that a female plaintiff who worked for a marijuana dispensary had successfully pled causes of…
Here’s a sneak preview of the outtakes from my ADA/FMLA MEGA session at SHRM19 in Las Vegas
Image Credit: PhotoFunia.com (http://photofunia.com/results/5d0b63b54686797e398b4569) FOMO or Fear of Missing Out. According to Google, FOMO is “anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.” What I’m about to show you are the slides that were not good…
HR, here’s what you need to know when determining whether your employee’s obesity is an ADA disability.
Image by Mary Pahlke from Pixabay Another court has ‘weighed in’ on whether obesity is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Hey, who just took revoked my license to blog? A few months ago, back when I still had a blogger license, I wrote here about obesity as…
Three employment law lessons from Harvard University’s decision to revoke the admission of a Parkland shooting survivor
Joseph Williams [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia CommonsThroughout much of the day yesterday, Twitter trended with news that Harvard University had rescinded the college admission of one of Parkland shooting survivors. For something the school just learned that he did two years ago. Here’s more from Joe Sterling reporting here…
Could a judge force you to provide anti-harassment training if you create a hostile work environment? Maybe not.
Chris Potter [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia CommonsOver the weekend, I read about a case where a federal jury concluded that a female plaintiff’s former employer subjected her to a hostile work environment. The jury awarded her zero point zero dollars, and a federal appellate court concluded that the company…
I come bearing HR-compliance gifts for you today
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay Two of them, actually. Check out this employment law blog. Who Is My Employee? is a blog from employment attorney Todd Lebowitz that explores independent contractor misclassification & joint employment issues. Todd is a partner at Baker & Hostetler in Cleveland, Ohio. Yesterday, he was…
When it comes to avoiding claims of age discrimination, consider the optics
Photo via Good Free Photos For example, consider a lawsuit that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a few weeks ago. I’ll quote a bit from the press release and be back with you in a second: [A] dental practice headquartered in Harrisburg, Pa., violated federal law when it…