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The Employer Handbook Blog

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Does Title VII allow a current employer to retaliate against HR for testifying against a former employer?

I’m pretty sure that’s where we left off yesterday. Let me check my notes. ✅give HR a coronary about ways to get fired (clickbait!), ✅blog about that 11th Cir. decision, ✅Day 1 “Manager Exception”; Day 2 “past employment,” ✅become their lord and savior (sacrilegious?) advocate. Yesterday, we explored a case…

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Hold up! Is there an “HR manager” exception that allows employers to retaliate against HR?

Last night, I read this recent decision from a three-judge panel on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. It involves a human resources manager who claimed that her current employer fired her after it learned that she had earlier given deposition testimony in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against her former…

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An end to certain sexual harassment NDAs? Check out this new bipartisan federal bill.

Earlier this year, President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The law allows victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment to litigate their claims in court even if they signed an arbitration agreement. At the end of last month, a bipartisan…

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COVID-19 variants are rising but, whatever you do, don’t collect THIS INFO from employees.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Equal Employ­ment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted a pre-recorded webinar addressing questions arising under any of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws and the COVID-19 pandemic. The video can be seen on YouTube or in the video player below. A transcript of the webinar is…

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Hostility at work is not necessarily a “hostile work environment.”

As a lawyer, a mediator, a workplace investigator, and a blogger, I’ve seen my fair share of employees claiming that someone(s) subjected them to a “hostile work environment.” But here’s the thing. Unless the behavior about which the individual complains is based on that person’s protected class, the law won’t…

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Hey, management-side employment lawyers! Bookmark this post now and thank me later.

We’ve all been there as defense attorneys. You find yourself defending claims of disparate treatment under a federal anti-discrimination statute like the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) where your client hired someone younger than the plaintiff. The only logical explanation, according to the plaintiff, is age discrimination. Why? Because…

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The ADA cheat sheet for accommodating disabilities of seasonal employees and interns

The muse for today’s post is whoever drafts the press releases for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Last night, I read this one about a $70,000 settlement that the EEOC reached with a Colorado employer to resolve a lawsuit filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The EEOC alleged…

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Following this week’s Supreme Court ruling, can private companies mandate prayer sessions at work?

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doesn’t think so. It’s suing a residential home service and repair company for violating federal law when it allegedly required employees to participate in religious prayer sessions as a condition of employment and retaliated against employees who opposed the unlawful practice. Before I detail…