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The Employer Handbook Blog“Focus on Your Health” Is Not a Lawful Reason to Fire Someone
Whatever the actual reason for firing an employee, the written explanation becomes evidence. A Mississippi restaurant is about to find out what that means. Continue reading
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
Filed under “duh”: Throwing paper clips at work undermines a retaliation claim. Secretly filming your boss doesn’t help either.
Some employment cases turn on close calls, messy comparators, or shaky documentation.
This one turned on something simpler: an employee who admitted to a string of workplace misconduct and still tried to turn the termination into a discrimination, retaliation, and hostile-work-environment case. Continue reading
One harassment claim can knock an entire case out of arbitration
Employers that rely on arbitration agreements should pay attention to a recent Sixth Circuit decision. One plausible sexual-harassment claim can keep an entire lawsuit in court—even claims that would otherwise go to arbitration. Continue reading
The EEOC reversed its restroom-access precedent. Private employers should read the fine print.
For nearly a decade, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said denying a transgender employee access to the restroom matching that employee’s gender identity violated Title VII.
Last month, the agency reversed course.
Private employers should read the fine print before changing anything. Continue reading
Ctrl-Alt-Delete that theory: Sixth Circuit rejects retaliation claim after arrest over unreturned laptop
That escalated quickly.
A university fired its HR director and asked him to return his work laptop. He refused for months. Campus police eventually obtained a felony arrest warrant. When the former employee finally showed up with the laptop, officers arrested him. He then sued for retaliation. Continue reading
When the accommodation request admits the problem
Sometimes the accommodation request itself tells the whole story.
In a recent Fourth Circuit Rehabilitation Act decision, a federal air marshal asked to stay in a ground-based role permanently after medical conditions prevented her from flying. But in doing so, she also acknowledged that she could not perform the essential duties of the job she wanted to keep.
Can employers make employees sign a contract shortening the time to bring Title VII and ADEA claims?
Some employers try. The Fourth Circuit just explained why that trick doesn’t work for these federal discrimination claims. Continue reading
What the Starbucks Decision Means For Employer DEI Efforts
By now, you’ve likely seen coverage of the Missouri Attorney General’s lawsuit challenging Starbucks’ DEI initiatives.
The opinion’s value lies in its doctrinal clarity. It illustrates how established discrimination law applies when DEI-related practices are challenged — and what employers should consider to reduce legal risk when designing and implementing those programs. Continue reading
Turning a Restructure into Discrimination? She Couldn’t.
A manager allegedly makes racially inappropriate jokes. Months later, the company eliminates a position in a nationwide cost-cutting initiative and reduces an employee’s hours. So she sues for race discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment.
But she loses. Continue reading
Mechanical Bull Bartending and the Age Bias Lawsuit That Never Got Off the Ground
The job requirements were… a lot: craft-beer exams, choreography, flair tricks, social media posts, and a “weight proportional to height” standard. Oh, and a mechanical bull. Eighteen longtime bartenders said the whole thing skewed younger. The court said their lawsuit had a more basic problem. Continue reading