Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment

Next week is our firm holiday party. And I am a big fan.

At the party, I like to drink Four Loko boilermakers all night until I get blackout drunk socialize with colleagues for a few hours before cabbing home for the evening. Generally, I go crazy have a good time. But I rarely always keep it in check. There are others like me at OTHER holiday parties who succumb to the sweet nectar of the gods get a bit tipsy after consuming too many drinks. And where there’s Tipsy, both Handsy and Sailormouth generally come out to play too.

This will could happen at your business. So what steps are you taking to prepare for this inevitability possibility (besides having my number on speed-dial)? Not sure what to do? I’ll help you with some tips after the jump.

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Recently, I had an article published in Bloomberg Law Reports about how employers can reduce their potential exposure to employee litigation by implementing a strong anti-harassment policy and then coupling that with training for supervisors and employees. If I do say so myself — and I do — this is a good read for any employer.

You can read my article here.

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Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which prohibits genetic information discrimination in employment, took effect on November 21, 2009. Nearly a year later, the EEOC published the final GINA regulations.

How does this law affect employers? I’ll break it down for you after the jump.

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According to a report from the Bureau of National Affairs, more employees than ever are filing complaints with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received a record 99,922 private sector discrimination charges in fiscal year 2010 but managed to keep its charge backlog almost unchanged at 86,338 pending charges, the commission reported today.

In its annual performance and accountability report, EEOC said that during the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2010, discrimination charges filed reached their highest level in the agency’s 45-year history. EEOC’s previous record was 95,402 charges received in FY 2008 and in FY 2009, 93,277 private sector charges were filed with the agency.

I was reading an article in the Gwinnett Daily Post — yeah, that’s right, the GDP — and it starts out like this…

BUFORD — When Buford City Schools bus driver Michele Threlkeld finished her final route on the last day of school, she reported to her supervisor’s office, as was routine.

I love reading articles that start this way, because you know that fireworks and lawsuits are going to ensue. So, cue the fireworks and lawsuits…after the jump.
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Recently, I read an article by Bob Egelko in
the San Francisco Chronicle
about a speech from U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
in which he told law
students from U.C. Hastings that the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution
, which guarantees equal protection to all U.S.
citizens, do not preclude discrimination based on sex. Justice Scalia
believes that the drafters of the Constitution did not have sex
discrimination on the brain when they passed the 14th Amendment.

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There are plenty of good reasons that plaintiff’s lawyers heart the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD). It has a wide scope of coverage for employees with disabilities. It’s remedial purposes are incredibly broad. A plaintiff can go directly to court with a claim under the NJLAD without vetting it with a state administrative agency first. A plaintiff can stay out of federal court where the odds of losing on an employment discrimination case on summary judgment are much higher than they are in state court.

As if the plaintiff’s bar didn’t need any further reasons to love the NJLAD.

Well, here’s one more…

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A few weeks ago, I came across an article by Terrence O’Brien on switched.com, “Facebook ‘Subscribe to’ Feature Lets You Follow Your Friend’s Every Move.”

Facebook is testing a new feature that lets you subscribe to a specific user’s content. In practice, this means receiving a notification every time that user updates their status, posts a new photo, link, video or note, and Mashable aptly dubs it the ‘Stalker Button.’ Taken at face value, this would appear to be a direct answer to the ability to “follow” a user on Twitter…

after the jump…

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