Articles Posted in Gender

Is it discrimination to favor a workplace shortie (shawtie?) over her male subordinates?

July 28, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Because all the other blogs will say “paramour” or “lover” in the lede, and I need to remain relevant (or “down,” if you will) with my more trendy readers.

Over the weekend, I read this case in which a male plaintiff alleged discrimination because his supervisor was allegedly schtupping a female subordinate and treating her better.

(The court said “voluntary romantic affiliation,” but why say in three words, what you can say in one).

When the supervisor offers an employee $$$ to have sex with his wife, that’s not gender bias, you guys

April 1, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Terribly sorry about the confusion created by my sloppy use of possessive pronouns in today’s lede. The “his” wife refers to the employee’s wife. Otherwise, this post doesn’t make any sense, does it? (Don’t spend too much time contemplating the question, ok).

Yep, just another Tuesday at The Employer Handbook.

Click through for what should prove to be a cluster of a gender discrimination claim contain many valuable takeaways for proactive employers.

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Judge dismisses “Borgata Babes'” claims of weight discrimination

August 5, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Sex sells. So, when 22 female cocktail servers at an Atlantic City casino pursued claims of discrimination based on their appearance, it came as little shock to me that the judge wasn’t buying.

Last month, a New Jersey state court dismissed a lawsuit against the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, brought by cocktail waitresses known as the “Borgata Babes,” who claimed that they were victims of gender and weight discrimination.

Jennifer Bogdan, writing here for the Press of Atlantic City, notes that, upon hire, Borgata told its servers that they must appear “physically fit” with their weight proportionate to their height and, ultimately, banned the servers from gaining more than 7 percent of their body weight. Supposedly, the women were subject to periodic weight checks and suspension for failing to meet the weight requirements, with exceptions made for medical conditions and pregnancy.

900,000 reasons not to judge a book by its cover

July 24, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

You’ve probably heard of this It’s Just Lunch, a Hallandale Beach-based company, even though you may not realize it. I’ll give you a hint. Have you flown recently? Yeah, that’s right. It’s Just Lunch is a matchmaking service that advertises around page 55 of the in-flight magazine of just about every domestic airline.

According to the company’s About IJL page, It’s Just Lunch was founded in 1991 by a resourceful, professional woman. Now go to the home page, scroll down the page to the right and look at the pictures of the It’s Just Lunch “Dating Specialists.” Notice anything in common?

Yeah, the EEOC did too. So, it filed this complaint in federal court.

Court countenances canning complainers of consensual canoodling

January 10, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

In Centucky Kentucky, it’s not retaliation to fire employees who complain about sexual favoritism.

Then again making apple-pie moonshine and using a butcher cleaver to slice off the arm of a Detroit gangster isn’t frowned upon either. At least, that’s what watching Justified teaches me.

But even in Kentucky, they have laws. No, it’s true.

After the jump, you’ll see a KY federal court’s rationale for the latest sexual-favoritism ruling. And I’ll provide some tips for dealing with employees who complain about cushy assignments given to employees who get freaky with management.

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It’s legal to fire a female employee because of her “irresistible attraction”

December 27, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Cue music.

Last week, a unanimous Iowa Supreme Court held (here) that it was ok for a male boss to fire a female employee — a model employee — out of concern that he would eventually succumb and do things with her that could jeopardize his marriage.

That has to be gender discrimination!

Boy meets girl, dates girl, breaks up, calls girl “whore,” gets fired, sues for discrimination

November 30, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image credit: atom.smasher.org, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

When a male employee texted his female co-worker and former girlfriend that she was a “whore” and later ignored two protective orders that the female co-worker had taken out against him, I wonder if he was thinking, “Maybe, I’ll get fired and parlay that into a winning reverse-gender-discrimination claim.”

Indeed, the guy’s actions violated a number of work rules and, ultimately, resulted in his termination. But a winning reverse-gender-discrimination claim? Not so much according to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals (opinion here):

New equal-rights rules for NJ employers take effect next month

October 25, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

I’d better remember to post this now before I get bitten and turn into a zombie and munch on your face..

[Note to self: Less of “The Walking Dead,” more sleep].

On November 19, 2012, this new law will take effect in NJ, which will require employers of 50 or more employees (zombies not included) to notify their workforce about “the right to be free of gender inequity or bias in pay, compensation, benefits or other terms or conditions of employment under the ‘Law Against Discrimination.”

Is an employee with managerial duties “similarly situated” to a manager?

September 13, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

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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“How can I keep the white girl?”

September 7, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

[Editor’s Note: Because “Playing the Race Card” was already taken]

The title of this post is comprised of the seven poorly-chosen words from a Vice President of Operations at a Detroit casino right before the casino terminated a white employee for allegedly botching supervision of a dealer card shuffle.

What do you think? Do we have a live race-discrimination claim? Oh yeah, we do! Details after the jump, as well as thoughts on employers who strive to maintain racial balance in the workplace…

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