Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment

Yes, we get it already. Permanent light duty is not an ADA reasonable accommodation.

August 9, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires an employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee with a disability, when doing so will permit that employee to perform the essential functions of the job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include reassigning non-essential job functions to other employees, a transfer to another open position for which the employee is qualified, and temporary light-duty assignments.

But what about permanent light duty?

Sexual harassment — same as it ever was

August 4, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

On Tuesday, the EEOC announced here that it had resolved a sexual harassment lawsuit with a Dunkin Donuts franchise for $150,000.

What’s so blog-worthy about that?

A white guy threatened to kill co-workers, got fired, and claimed discrimination. How’d that turn out?

August 3, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

If you were thinking, “Not well,” well, give yourself a gold star and a pat on the back.
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“A person can be married on Saturday and then fired on Monday for just that act.”

August 1, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

The lede comes directly from last Thursday’s much anticipated decision, in which the Seventh Circuit concluded in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College (opinion here) that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal workplace anti-discrimination statute, does not protect workers from discrimination based on LGBT status.

Join me for a free webinar on 8/24: “How to Navigate Alcoholism and Substance Abuse under the FMLA/ADA”

July 29, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Are you prepared to address drug- and alcohol-related disabilities and leave issues under the FMLA and ADA?

At some time in their lives, millions of Americans have abused drugs and alcohol. While many are in recovery, others continue their struggle. Inevitably, your workforce will feel the impact.

Join this new discussion to learn about the applicable employment laws, available accommodations and leave options under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and hear recent court cases and legislation and take away some best practices you/your organization can use.

What ADA protections exist for mental health episodes at work? Not many. Maybe none.

July 28, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

My skin crawls thinking about the Google search terms that will land some HR professionals on this post, which involves a failed suicide attempt. Hopefully, this is not a practice tip upon which you’ll need to draw in the course of your HR career.

But, just in case…

Got young employees? They pray to different gods? Then, you need this EEOC fact sheet.

July 26, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Less colloquially, last Friday, the EEOC released this one-page fact sheet “designed to help young workers better understand their rights and responsibilities under the federal employment anti-discrimination laws prohibiting religious discrimination.” You can read the EEOC press release here.

What HR can learn from those hella-dumb DNC leadership emails.

July 25, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

About a year ago, I had a post entitled, The “E” in E-Mail stands for Exhibit. As in Exhibit A. Here’s a snippet:

As part of my respect-in-the-workplace training, I tell employees and managers that bad e-mails are like dirty diapers: they stink and they never go away.

Yeah, about that…

Trailblazing federal court flatly rejects one free tea-bagging at work

July 21, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

No, not that tea-bagging. And just when you thought that Your Blogness couldn’t possibly raise his game (raise, right?) after yesterday’s fart post.

(Yes, the next 1000+ words will either be my G.O.A.T. or my Waterloo, which, I’m told, is bad.)

Remember that flatulence-cum-discrimination claim from last year? Well, it stinks too.

July 20, 2016 | by Eric B. Meyer

Look, cut me some slack here.

It’s 1:45 AM local time in New Orleans. This is my fourth major city in less than a week, having just arrived in town from San Francisco, where I spoke with EEOC General Counsel David Lopez on LGBT workplace rights at the EEOC EXCEL Conference. Instead of doing some last-minute preparing for tomorrow’s spiel at the 2016 DMEC Annual Conference — or, better yet, sleeping — I’m giving you a blog post about the discrimination implications of farting at work.

Please send my Pulitzer to Philadelphia.