I’m feeling rather charitable this evening as I punch out this post. Maybe it’s the proud feeling of crossing off my bucket list taking my four-year-old son to a Sunday early-bird at the biggest dive bar in South Jersey. (*Bonus points if you can guess the bar).
Well, I’m not sure if “proud” really captures it.
(And before you call DYFS, that’s sour mix pineapple juice).
This is my son’s first year playing t-ball. The rules, in case you’re not familiar with them, are simple:
- Everybody hits
- Everybody (eventually) rounds the bases
So, check this out.
I read this case yesterday about an employee who provided her company with a November 12 doctor’s note, requesting that her hours be reduced due to her high-risk pregnancy. The employee would have become eligible for coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act on November 17.
The company fired her on November 16.
The thing about this law-blogging gig, other than the money, power and women, of course, is the pride of being first to post about a crazy new case.
Last week, I missed out on the nude sunbather who sued an elementary school-employer for retaliation. Well, Jon Hyman at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, I see your nude sunbather and raise you two white guys and a native american who dressed as klansmen at work, allowed themselves to be photographed, and then sued for race discrimination. Boom!
Yes, this really happened.
More on this one after the jump…
It was Gloria Steinem who, in discussing President Bill Clinton’s indiscretions with Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey, fashioned the “one free grope” rule. That is, while not condoning President Clinton’s actions, Steinem concluded that one touching is not sexual harassment — at least as a matter law.
Well, yesterday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, saw Steinem’s “one-free-grope” rule and raised her a “two-free-slurs” rule.
In Boyer-Liberto v. Fontainebleu Corp., (opinion (here), a black plaintiff alleged that her co-worker referred to her as a “porch monkey” twice in two days, from which she claimed to have been subjected to a racially hostile work environment.
This according to this survey released yesterday from CareerBuilder.com.
Working dads who were the sole breadwinners in their household were four times as likely to earn six figures, while working moms who are the sole breadwinners were nearly twice as likely to earn less than $35,000.
However, money may not be everything. That is, 78% of working moms reported they are happy in their current roles at work, with about 2/3rds of working moms having enjoyed the full amount of maternity leave available to them following childbirth.
We’ve talked a fair amount about sexual stereotyping at the ole Handbook.
Here I discussed the cluster created by offering crap assignments to a male employee because he fails to conform to a male stereotype.
And of course, we have my “Ravishing Rick Rude” theory of same-sex harassment, which a federal appellate court crapped all over.
Generally, a typical sexual harassment claim involves a supervisor or manager or co-worker making unwelcome sexual advances towards another employee.
But what if, instead of the harasser being one of your employees, it’s an independent contractor.
Does that absolve your company from liability? Is it a valid defense if one of your employees sues you for sexual harassment to point the finger outside of the company?
That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.”
Try this one for size, folks.
In this case, an employee argued that her former employer retaliated against her, by terminating her for complaining about the favorable treatment a co-worker with a special needs child received.
Two big EEOC pet peeves right now are:
- employers who discriminate in the hiring process; and
- employers who violate the Americans with Disabilities Act based on misconceived notions about how an individual’s health could impact that person’s ability to perform essential job functions.
The Employer Handbook Blog