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The Employer Handbook BlogThe Employer Handbook: Week in Review Podcast (April 21–25, 2025)
Now you can listen to The Employer Handbook—check out this week’s podcast recap! Continue reading
Articles Posted in Disparate Impact / Disparate Treatment
Did President Trump just cancel disparate impact discrimination claims?
President Trump’s latest executive order could change how the federal government handles workplace discrimination — but not in the way you might think.
Before you assume that disparate impact claims are gone for good, let’s unpack what the order does (and doesn’t) do. Continue reading
Wearables at Work: An EEOC “Fit” for HR Compliance and Productivity
Yesterday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the release of a new fact sheet titled “Wearables in the Workplace: The Use of Wearables and Other Monitoring Technology Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws.” This document is crucial for human resources professionals as it provides guidance on using wearable technologies in compliance with federal employment discrimination laws. Here, I’ll summarize the key points of the fact sheet and offer some essential takeaways for HR professionals.
Rest in Peace: Lilly Ledbetter, an equal-pay activist and icon
U.S. Department of Labor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Over the weekend, Lilly Ledbetter, a woman who unintentionally became a champion of equal pay for men and women, died at 86. Continue reading
Two United States Senators are about to introduce something called the “No Robot Bosses Act”
We began July with New York City starting to enforce its law that requires companies hiring with artificial intelligence to notify candidates, provide candidates with particular information about data collected and analyzed, and independently audit the technology. It’s all in the name of removing bias from the hiring process, which the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has warned employers about, too.
Now, two Senators are co-sponsoring legislation they claim will “protect and empower workers by preventing employers from relying exclusively on artificial intelligence or bots to make employment decisions.” Continue reading
Would your business ever refuse to hire applicants with obvious missing, broken, or badly discolored teeth?
Unless you run a dental practice, I can’t imagine why a fetching, toothy smile would be a job qualification. But, apparently, a large chain of gas/convenience stores has that policy. Continue reading
3d Cir: Even where old folks are treated fairly, OLDER folks can bring age-bias claims
You’ll have to pardon the headline.
I’m not nearly as articulate as the Third Circuit was in yesterday’s opinion in Karlo v. Pittsburgh Glass Works, LLC, using words like “cognizable” and “disproportionate adverse impact.” And, even though the Third Circuit sits in Philadelphia, you won’t find local lingo like “old head” or “jawn” anywhere in the opinion.
Although, I’m pretty sure page 6 has a cheez whiz stain on it.
Can an employee fired for an extra-marital affair claim marital-status discrimination?
Well, I suppose you can claim just about anything.
For example ***takes big dose of medication*** I claim god status on the third sun for Rondor. My fourth place finish on the unaired celebrity-blogger episode of Chopped really raised by Rondor grass cred. (No streets on Rondor; only luscious purple grass).
But, when you’re a married school superintendent. And you sneak off during school hours. And you’re sneaking with a female para-educator. Well, sneaking and having sex with the female para-educator in her parked car. You can imagine how this ended.
Well, the former school superintendent — see what I did there? — claimed that his marital status (as opposed to his sexual relationship with a female co-worker who was not his wife) was the reason for his termination.
Thoughts…
Is an employee with managerial duties “similarly situated” to a manager?
Maybe it’s the luck of the draw, but most of the discrimination cases I defend are hostile work environment cases, where an alleged harasser supposedly has made an employee-victim’s life miserable with certain comments, jokes, gestures, touchings, you name it.
Far less often do I encounter disparate-treatment claims. A disparate-treatment claim is one where an employee claims that another similarly-situated employee in another class was treated more favorably because of his/her protected class. For example, a female employee claims that similarly-situated male employees are paid more because they are men.
Sounds like the facts of a recent case decided right in my backyard in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. This case provides a great opportunity to go back to school on what it means to be similarly-situated…after the jump…
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Egyptian-born FBI agent + post-9/11 transfer = discrimination claim
And if anyone wants to get me this iPad case for Christmas…
Wait, what was I supposed to be writing about? Oh yeah, national-origin discrimination. I’ll get it together for you after the jump…
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