Suppose an employer transfers an employee, and that employee believes that unlawful bias fueled the decision. Does that transfer have to significantly disadvantage that employee to give rise to a discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? The Supreme Court addressed that issue yesterday in…
Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would hold a “special open Commission meeting” on April 23 to vote on whether to issue a proposed final rule that would prevent most employers from enforcing noncompetes against workers. In January 2023, the FTC proposed a rule generally prohibiting employers from…
At long last, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency tasked with enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), has issued a final rule to implement the new law. The PWFA requires private employers with 15 or more employees (and Congress, Federal agencies, employment agencies, and labor organizations)…
I want to tell you about an Army reservist whose employer investigated him for taking fraudulent leave. That investigation spawned a grand jury indictment for theft. The employee was booked, detained in jail, suspended from his job, and eventually fired. Yada, yada, yada, a federal jury awarded the employee $1,500,000.…
A white man filed a lawsuit against a company claiming that it denied him a high-six-figure executive position because of his race, age, and sex so that the company could search for more diverse candidates. Among the causes of action he asserted was one for race discrimination under 42 U.S.C.…
Often, an employer has affirmative defenses when an employee accuses a supervisor of sexual harassment. But Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes liability automatic in two ways. First, there’s the situation involving quid pro quo sexual harassment. That happens when a supervisor conditions some tangible employment…
Congress has considered legislation several times that would prohibit employers from discriminating based on an individual’s hair texture or hairstyle if that hair texture or that hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin. But it has never passed. Why? Because many believe that this law is…
The words “cisgender” or “non-transgender” employee appear nowhere in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal workplace law that outlaws gender discrimination. But, according to a Pennsylvania federal judge, “that does not preclude the possibility that discrimination against both a cisgender male and cisgender female may…
After taking a few days off and rocking out in Seattle, I’m back to blogging about employment law. 🤘🤘🤘 Today, we pull back the curtain and reveal how the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will address failure-to-accommodate claims under the Supreme Court’s new religious accommodation standard established last year in…
Like The Rock laying the smack(eth) down on Cody Rhodes in a Chicago parking lot, a federal appellate court recently pummelled the National Labor Relations Board. Although to be clear, no one was harmed as part of the DC Court of Appeals’ recent ruling about the contours of employee surveillance.…