Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment

How swift response to racial slurs and graffiti defused a discrimination claim

September 12, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

You have an employee handbook, an anti-harassment policy, training, the whole nine.

But, sometimes, notwithstanding your best efforts to create a positive, respectful workplace, you receive a complaint from an employee who claims to be the victim of harassment based on [insert protected class].

All the prophylactic measures you’ve already installed mean nothing unless you respond to that complaint appropriately.

See how one company did it right, after the jump…

* * *

The sleepy, old man with old ideas may have an age discrimination claim

September 11, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Psst.

Want the secret to spotting a potential age discrimination claim a mile away?

I’ve got it for you after the jump.

* * *

EEOC takes on fitness-for-duty medical releases; how to avoid the crosshairs.

September 10, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Congratulations!

Your fitness-for-duty employee medical examinations are job-related or consistent with business necessity. So, they pass muster under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But, what about the medical information you request from employees in connection with those exams?

Oh yeah, there’s that too…

Ask for too much info and you might you be violating not only the ADA, but also the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act.

Rut roh! More after the jump…

* * *

Apparently, the ADA requires accommodating an employee’s anger issues with a Shih Tzu named “Sugar Bear”

September 8, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Hey, I don’t make this stuff up. I just blog about it.

More after the jump…

* * *

Final Score: HIPAA 1 – Retaliation 0

September 5, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

See how a federal appellate court shut out a plaintiff’s claims of retaliation after she was fired for forwarding confidential documents to herself, purportedly to preserve evidence for an age-discrimination lawsuit filed by a former coworker.

What I did there, you see that?

After the jump…

* * *

Same-sex training. Ok or discrimination?

August 29, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

According to the EEOC, if men can only train men, and women only women, that may be discrimination.

But, let’s see what a federal court has to say about that after the jump…

* * *

Court: Title VII prohibits retaliation based on good-faith complaint of sexual-orientation harassment

August 25, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on a number of protected classes. Sexual orientation isn’t one of those protected classes specifically listed in the statute.

So, if an employee complains about sexual-orientation harassment and is later fired because she complained, then that won’t create a claim under Title VII. Or does it?

Find out after the jump…

* * *

Will the EEOC become more employer-friendly in the Fall?

August 22, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

*** whistles ***

The word on the street according to Kevin McGowan at Bloomberg/BNA (here $$$) is that U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien (D) has decided not to seek renomination to the EEOC.

Originally an Obama recess-appointment, the Senate confirmed Ms. Berrien as EEOC Chair in December 2010. Her term expired on July 1, 2014, but she is permitted to retain her seat until September 1, 2014.

Yes, you can fire an employee who discloses a disability at his termination meeting

August 21, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Filed under: duh!

An employer-defendant argued that cancer — CANCER!!! — is not an ADA disability

August 13, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

How do you think that worked out? (I’ve got a pretty good guess too).

After the jump, let’s see if we’re right.

* * *