Kind of sounds like the start of a beautiful movie or novel, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, however, it became more Lady Gaga. Or, more precisely, the writings of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals adjudicating an on-again-off-again sexual relationship between the “lovers” who became “colleagues” in the “workplace” and, later, plaintiff and…
Colloquially, today’s topic is “reverse religious discrimination.” But, more accurately, it’s about a claim of “religious nonconformity.” In plain English, what happens when an employee refuses to comply with their employer’s religion? The case involves a video editor who started working for a company in 2019. At first, things were…
Yesterday’s post discussed how direct evidence “proves impermissible discriminatory bias without additional inference or presumption,” i.e., the proverbial smoking gun. But smoking gun evidence in discrimination cases is rare. Employers aren’t out there telling employees that their race will cost them their jobs. Well, most employers, that is. Last night, I…
They lost. We’ll get to why in a bit. First, I’ll provide some context. During the plaintiffs’ employment, the defendant received complaints that they were (1) regularly engaging in sexually derogatory commentary, (2) discussing drug use, (3) speaking derogatorily about a transgender employee, and (4) sometimes speaking in a homophobic…
A man walks into a job interview. Years earlier, he sustained an injury that caused him to walk with a limp and requires him to extend his leg when seated. He had applied for one of the company’s open positions. And since he satisfied the minimum experiential and educational requirements,…
Yesterday, I read a press release in the EEOC’s Virtual Newsroom announcing the resolution of a retaliation lawsuit. In my twenty-plus years of practicing employment law, I didn’t recall seeing retaliation claims quite like this one. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the general manager complained to the company’s Acting Chief…
The common logic is that firing an employee shortly after complaining about workplace discrimination isn’t a good look. Indeed, the tighter the temporal proximity between the two events, the more likely the employee will perceive that the employer retaliated against them for their complaint. But. I read a commonsense Ninth…
Yesterday, we discussed unconscious bias training in the workplace. Today, we’ll talk about an employer that may need some if the allegations in a recently filed complaint against it are true. According to the complaint filed in Michigan state court earlier this month, a 27-year-old African-American man from Detroit applied…
Let’s play a game of “closest to the pin.” But first, here is a quick recap before I explain the rules of the game. In January 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a rule generally prohibiting employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers. In the following year and change, the federal agency…
On Wednesday, an administrative law judge issued a cease and desist order forcing an employer to rescind overly broad nondisparagement and confidentiality language from its severance agreement and notify all former employees who signed them. This could have been avoided. In this case, the nondisparagement provision stated that it was…