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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
Even in one of the most employee-friendly states, COVID-19 isn’t necessarily a disability
Near the beginning of the pandemic, an employee in New Jersey reported to work but felt ill; specifically, he felt “cold, clammy, and weak.” After going home, the employer told him not to return until he tested for COVID-19. The next day, the plaintiff went to a free clinic where he obtained a COVID-19 test. While waiting for the results, the employee reported to his employer that he felt better, and offered to return to work, maintaining social distance from others. The employer fired him instead.
Is this disability discrimination? Continue reading
If the boss is creating a hostile work environment, no amount of fix-it may save you in the lawsuit
Not this Boss. I’m talking about someone so high up in the company food chain that they serve as the organization’s proxy. Continue reading
Your employees’ arbitration agreements may look a lot different soon (all crumpled up in a trash can)
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) announced the introduction of the bipartisan Protecting Older Americans Act. The legislation would invalidate forced arbitration clauses that require employees to arbitrate claims of age discrimination, whether for disparate treatment, disparate impact, harassment, and retaliation. Continue reading
That time a federal appellate court schooled a teacher on at-will employment
A schoolteacher who got promoted to Assistant Head of School, only to have her position eliminated, felt that the school should have explored other alternatives. She believed this demonstrated a pretext for age discrimination.
She was wrong. Continue reading
Does telling an employee to seek anger management mean that you regard them as having an ADA disability?
Now, I know a lot of you reading this are out in Las Vegas at SHRM23 right now. And you probably work for companies that provide Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to employees that could use counseling or support.
Most of you know that the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination against employees who have actual disabilities and those that employers perceive as having a disability, also prohibits employers from inquiring about the nature or severity of a disability unless the inquiry is shown to be “job-related and consistent with business necessity.”
But have you ever wondered whether recommending an EAP to an employee invokes the ADA?
NY Federal Courts 2 – “Central Park Karen” 0
The white woman many refer to pejoratively as “Central Park Karen,” after a videotaped dispute with a Black birdwatcher in Central Park went viral, was at it again. This time, appealing the “L” she took from a New York federal court in a race discrimination and defamation lawsuit against her former employer to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
How do you think that went? 😐
Can blasting Eminem’s music create a hostile work environment? A federal appellate court thinks so.
At a workplace in Nevada, “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music from artists like Eminem and Too $hort “blasted from commercial-strength speakers placed throughout the warehouse, the music overpowered operational background noise and was nearly impossible to escape.” Employees complained about it “almost daily.” But management brushed those complaints aside and defended the music as motivational. This went on for almost two years.
Then eight former employees sued. They claimed that routinely playing “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music throughout its warehouse created a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Continue reading
Trial Court: 45-50 “N” words and a noose not race discrimination. Appellate Court: “Bruh…”
Ok, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion wasn’t quite that colloquial when questioning the trial judge’s analysis. However, I’ll explain why the appellate court concluded that a jury should decide whether a black tool crib operator who testified that numerous coworkers used the N-word routinely while he was around was subjected to a hostile work environment.
He 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