Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment

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.

An employee who sleeps on the job may still be qualified under the ADA

July 30, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

That George Costanza was definitely on to something.

A federal court in Virginia (here) recently denied an employer’s attempt to dismiss the complaint of a former employee who claimed that his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act were violated when his employer failed to accommodate him by waking him when he fell asleep on the job.

The ADA requires that an employer accommodate a disabled employee, if doing so will not cause undue burden to the employer, but will still allow the employee to perform the essential functions of his job.

“You can take your proposal and shove it up your ass and fire me and I’ll see you in court.”

July 29, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Just another Monday here at The Employer Handbook. It’s how we roll.

Over the weekend, I read this opinion from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. From the opening paragraph, it had my attention.

After working at A.B. Data for four months, Michael Benes charged the firm with sex discrimination. The EEOC arranged for mediation in which, after an initial joint session, the parties separated and a go-between relayed offers. In a separate-room mediation, each side (including attorneys and assistants) stays in its own room. The intermediary shuffles between rooms. Many mediators believe that this approach prevents tempers from erupting, allows each side to discuss its own position candidly without the adversary’s presence, and facilitates careful deliberation and compromise. But on receiving a settlement proposal that he thought too low, Benes stormed into the room occupied by his employer’s representatives and said loudly: “You can take your proposal and shove it up your ass and fire me and I’ll see you in court.” Benes stalked out, leaving the employer’s representatives shaken. Within an hour A.B. Data accepted Benes’s counterproposal: it fired him. He replied with this suit under 42 U.S.C. §2000e-3(a), the anti-retaliation pro- vision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His claim of sex discrimination has been abandoned.

Princeton study reveals that older employees face “subtle bias” in the workplace

July 25, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Under federal law, the bar is set higher for proving age discrimination, as opposed to other forms of unlawful discrimination based on protected classes such as race, gender, or disability.

While difficult to prove, a recent article from The New York Times suggests that age discrimination in the workplace may be more common than we realize.

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.

Who fires the 68-year-old right after her great performance review?

July 23, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

The company that likes defending age-discrimination claims, that’s who.

More after the jump…

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That’s what they said: Lotsa NLRB news, and an employment-law carnival

July 18, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

So much labor-and-employment-law news this week, I’ll do what I can to cram it into a single post. Here goes…

From Seth Borden at Labor Relations Today comes this news about the Senate agreeing to — gasp — seat a full five-member National Labor Relations Board. How could this happen? Something about a nuclear option ~~and compromising photos.~~.

Staying with the labor theme, Joel Barras at Employment Law Watch reports here about a recent advice memorandum from the NLRB’s General Counsel in which the GC concludes that employers must bargain with their unions before implementing new social media policies. No shock there.

Iowa S. Ct.: Upon review, firing the attractive female was not sex discrimination

July 15, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

So, by now, all of you must be familiar with the case in Iowa — I’ve blogged the heck out of it here and here — where the male dentist fired the attractive female hygienist, ostensibly because his wife was concerned that the hygienist’s continued employment might affect their marriage and because the dentist was concerned that he may eventually shag her.

Late last year, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously held (here) that there is no sex discrimination if a male employer terminates a long-time female employee because the employer’s wife, due to no fault of the employee, is concerned about the nature of the relationship between the employer and the employee.

Then, a few weeks ago, and after a lot of public scrutiny, the high court agreed to reconsider its unanimous ruling, which it did with this new opinion issued on Friday.

One step closer to federally-protected LGBT rights in the workplace

July 11, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Normally, I get my Thursday post fodder from the Wiggity Wiggity Wonky Wednesday edition of Cracked Magazine. Hard hitting stuff like “7 Dick Moves Everyone Pulled in Classic Video Games” and “The Worst Imaginary Friends to Be Stuck With.”

But, for today’s post, I read this newspaper called the Washington Post. I dunno. Must’ve sprung up overnight.

One its writers, Ruth Tam, writes here that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has cleared a bipartisan Senate committee:

Obesity as a workplace disability? One court bucks the trend and says no.

July 10, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

In mid-June, the American Medical Association concluded that obesity is a disease “requiring a range of medical interventions to advance obesity treatment and prevention.” This news led Jon Hyman at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog to conclude that classification of obesity as a “disease” has huge employment law implications; namely, that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers would have to consider allowing for reasonable accommodations for obese employees. Indeed, even before the AMA guidance, a Louisiana court determined that morbid obesity was a disability under the ADA, thus requiring reasonable accommodation.

Well, last month, a state court in West Virginia concluded otherwise. More on this decision and its impact on employers after the jump…

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