The white woman many refer to pejoratively as “Central Park Karen,” after a videotaped dispute with a Black birdwatcher in Central Park went viral, was at it again. This time, appealing the “L” she took from a New York federal court in a race discrimination and defamation lawsuit against her…
At a workplace in Nevada, “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music from artists like Eminem and Too $hort “blasted from commercial-strength speakers placed throughout the warehouse, the music overpowered operational background noise and was nearly impossible to escape.” Employees complained about it “almost daily.” But management brushed those complaints aside and…
Ok, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion wasn’t quite that colloquial when questioning the trial judge’s analysis. However, I’ll explain why the appellate court concluded that a jury should decide whether a black tool crib operator who testified that numerous coworkers used the N-word routinely while he was around…
The plaintiff in this federal court decision I read last night didn’t exactly come off as a model employee. According to the decision, others reported that the plaintiff, a security officer and transportation driver, took extended lunch breaks, made unauthorized stops while making product deliveries (including a car dealership to purchase a…
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect employee use of illegal drugs. It does not prevent employers from testing applicants or employees for current illegal drug use or making employment decisions based on verifiable results. However, the ADA would protect an employee with a disability who fails a drug…
A 30-plus-year employee found out the hard way that missing a deadline — by just 24 hours — to arbitrate her claim against her former employer under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is enough to lose it forever when her brief delay violates the plain terms of an arbitration…
If you’ve got an HR-compliance sweet tooth, here is your FMLA nerd candy. Your favorite employment law, the Family and Medical Leave Act, entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take may take up to 12 workweeks of job-protected, unpaid leave in a 12-month period for various qualifying reasons. Employees…
Yesterday, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo claiming that the “proffer, maintenance, and enforcement non-compete provisions in employment contracts and severance agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act except in limited circumstances.” Other labor and employment lawyers may forebode the end for most non-competes. Me?…
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating against employees based on religion. As the EEOC points out, “the law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious,…
This will all make sense in a minute if you keep reading. The plaintiff is dealt a tough hand. As the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals put it in this decision I read last night, the plaintiff was “dealt a tough hand.” In less than a month, her father fell…