Earlier in the week, I shared four ways to BOTCH a sexual harassment investigation. My “muse” was an Employee Relations Department that caught the attention of the EEOC for its alleged poor handling of an employee’s complaints of sexual harassment. But I appreciate a good comeback story, don’t you? And…
This sounds like something that might interest the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Oh, wait. Would you look at this EEOC press release? It seems her employer may have engaged in age and disability discrimination. Let’s see why the EEOC believes this: (I mean, other than “duh!”) According to the lawsuit, the…
Last month, I told you that an employer’s response to a harassment complaint doesn’t need to be perfect. Just ok may do. That’s because an employer that learns about sexual harassment needs to respond in a way that is reasonably designed to end the complained-of behavior. Well, I read a…
Hopefully, your business never has to address a situation where an employee is suffering from progressive memory loss and cognitive decline. But, suppose one of your employees informs you that they have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. How should the company respond? Last night, I read a court opinion involving this fact…
There are all sorts of anti-retaliation laws that protect employees. Many require that employees who invoke them prove that the employer acted with retaliatory intent. But not all of them. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed unanimously in Murray v. UBS Securities that the one that protects whistleblowers who speak…
Before discussing the jury verdict, I’ll tell you a little about how we got here. Let’s go back to New Year’s Eve 2020 when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced (here) that it had sued a distribution company for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to interview…
“When are you going to retire?” “Why don’t you retire at 65?” “What is the reason you are not retiring?” A company manager at a manufacturing and distribution company allegedly asked these questions of a direct report as she approached her 65th birthday, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity…
Last night, I read a NJ Appellate Division opinion about a plaintiff in his fifties who claimed his age motivated the defendant to end his employment. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. There were many reasons why the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of…
Federal agencies, like the U.S. Department of Justice, often publish news releases touting their lawsuits and significant judgments against employer scofflaws. But, I know a big one — a $1.2M judgment — that the DOJ will want to forget. According to multiple reports, including Grace Elletson’s at Law360, the DOJ offered…
Last week, I wrote (here) about a white college professor who successfully alleged that his employer subjected him to a hostile work environment, at least, in part, because of particular training and conferences he attended about racism. But, the same court clarified that “[t]raining on concepts such as ‘white privilege,’…