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The Employer Handbook Blog

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Can an employer exclude older job applicants for marketing purposes?

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doesn’t think so. Last week, the EEOC announced that it had sued a company called “Meathead Movers,” the largest independent moving company in California, for allegedly refusing to hire people based on age. Here’s more from the press release: The EEOC’s lawsuit charges that…

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What are there legal risks of making a worker participate in an Employee Assistance Program?

Suppose that several employees complain that a coworker is creating a “hostile work environment” because they were afraid that she (the coworker) was going to report them (the employees) for engaging in unspecified misconduct in the workplace. Can the employer respond by mandating an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) referral as…

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There’s a new joint-employer rule. Wait, another one?!? Yes, this one involves employers and labor unions.

Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board swung the pendulum even further in favor of unions when it issued its Final Rule on joint employment. In a press release, the Board described the new standard like this: An entity may be considered a joint employer of a group of employees if…

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Complaints of discrimination can come in all shapes and sizes

A tenured professor in a university’s history department learns of “discrimination” and “marginalization” of Hispanic employees within the department. The university appoints him to an “Equity Committee” to address the problem. As part of his remediation efforts, the professor creates a “salary report” confirming instances of pay disparity among minority…

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Why was talk of confederate flags and cursing the President not “extreme” enough to be a hostile work environment?

How some of her coworkers spoke at work deeply offended a hospital nurse. One of them said that “Michelle Obama looks like a monkey” and the “President is a piece of s**t.” Another said President Obama was “stupid,” was the “worst president ever,” and “needs to go back to Africa.”…

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I’ll give you a million reasons not to ask employees and applicants about family medical history

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) forbids discrimination against employees or applicants because of genetic information. Specifically, Title II of GINA prohibits using genetic information in making employment decisions, restricts employers from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information, and strictly limits the disclosure of genetic information. While GINA has been…

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On Instagram, an ER doctor said Israelis got “a taste of their own medicine.” CORRECTION: Former ER doctor.

A doctor whose job is to administer potentially life-saving medicine to patients, among them Jews, was reportedly fired after celebrating the massacre of Israelis by the Islamist terror group Hamas. Here’s more from the NY Post: An emergency room physician …shared a video of the heinous Oct. 7 attack on her…

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It’s not often an employee has direct evidence of discrimination. But I found one that did.

A white man working as the general manager of a hotel claimed that his white supervisor engaged in racial discrimination when she terminated his employment. Initially, I was skeptical. But not anymore. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for employers to terminate an employee…

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What rights do former employees have under the ADA? Well, it depends.

***ducks tomato*** I’ll give you an example. Let’s say a firefighter develops Parkinson’s Disease. Eventually, her disease leaves her incapable of performing the essential functions of her job, and she takes disability retirement at age 48. The employer has a policy allowing former employees, like the employee here, to receive…