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The Employer Handbook BlogHe got fired after threatening to complain to HR. Could that be retaliation?
The plaintiff in this federal court decision I read last night didn’t exactly come off as a model employee. Continue reading
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
She said the quiet part loud and the loud part, well, not at all.
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect employee use of illegal drugs. It does not prevent employers from testing applicants or employees for current illegal drug use or making employment decisions based on verifiable results. However, the ADA would protect an employee with a disability who fails a drug test if the employer bases its termination decision on the underlying disability rather than the test result.
But here’s the thing. Continue reading
A day late and an age discrimination claim short
A 30-plus-year employee found out the hard way that missing a deadline — by just 24 hours — to arbitrate her claim against her former employer under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is enough to lose it forever when her brief delay violates the plain terms of an arbitration agreement.
At work, do we have to accommodate employees with religions we’ve never heard of?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating against employees based on religion. As the EEOC points out, “the law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs.”
While the law may not protect folks who pray to flying spaghetti monsters, Title VII can apply to others who are not members of conventional religious groups. As the EEOC notes, “just because an individual’s religious practices may deviate from commonly-followed tenets of the religion, the employer should not automatically assume that his or her religious observance is not sincere.” Continue reading
Is it sexual harassment to IMPLY that certain job benefits will require sexual favors?
Have you ever heard of quid pro quo sexual harassment? Continue reading
Would you stop emailing and texting? Just pick up the damn phone for once instead!
If, like me, you deal with HR compliance and employment law issues regularly, you’ve yelled the title of this blog post at others.
(And if you don’t deal with HR compliance and employment law issues regularly, dude, WTH are you doing here?) Continue reading
A new resource from the EEOC could help employers avoid bias claims from using AI
Yesterday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a technical assistance document, “Assessing Adverse Impact in Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence Used in Employment Selection Procedures Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” which is focused on preventing discrimination against job seekers and workers. Continue reading
What to do if you face antisemitism at work
Yesterday, the EEOC released a new fact sheet on “What To Do If You Face Antisemitism at Work,” which, according to this survey, is a relatively common occurrence. Continue reading
A Californian got fired for an ALL LIVES MATTER tweet and claimed … RELIGIOUS discrimination?!?
I’ll explain why a federal court determined the complaint of a sports radio talk show host failed to state a claim upon which relief could be based. Continue reading
The public health emergency is over. So why is the EEOC issuing new COVID-19 guidance to employers?
On May 11, 2023, the federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 ended. However, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced yesterday that “the end of the declaration does not change the requirements of the federal equal employment opportunity laws discussed in this publication.”
So, the EEOC took the opportunity to update its COVID-19 Technical Assistance.