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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
Don’t discriminate. (But, if you do, don’t make it THIS EASY for the EEOC to nail you for it.)
I have a lot of respect for human resource professionals. It’s not easy being in HR. Or so I hear.
(No one has ever confused me with someone who put the “human” in human resources. I can be more of a, shall we say, jerk.) Continue reading
Is it legal to fire over 900 employees at once over Zoom?
Image by Lynn Kurtz from Pixabay
News of a New York-based online mortgage lender’s CEO terminating over 900 employees with no notice on a three-minute Zoom call has been dominating my Google Alerts recently. Continue reading
It turns out that women filming gifts of sex toys to male colleagues is not ok in Australia
Almost everything I know about Australia comes from The Simpsons. Continue reading
The EEOC updated its COVID-19 guidance again with new information on retaliation
Image Credit: finger pointing by BomSymbols from the Noun Project
While nerds like me were flooding LinkedIn with status updates about Sixth Circuit this and OSHA ETS that, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was hosting a secret “virtual dialogue” with the employer Illuminati about retaliation updating its COVID-19 Technical Assistance to include additional information on retaliation.
Anything 🤯? Continue reading
Employer wigs out over an African American employee’s hair; EEOC claims race discrimination
Image Credit: Wig by Daniela Baptista from the Noun Project
In recent years, some states and municipalities have made it unlawful to discriminate based on an individual’s hairstyle because certain protected classes — usually Black women — receive unfair treatment based on inherent hair texture and protective hairstyles, like braids, locs, and twists. Why, yesterday, Tempe became the second city in Arizona to pass a hair discrimination ban.
There’s nothing explicit under federal antidiscrimination law, like Title VII, that outlaws hair discrimination. But, that hasn’t stopped the EEOC from pursuing related claims for race discrimination. Continue reading
Drop that COVID-19 religious accommodation exemption form says one EEOC Commissioner
form by Jason Tropp from the Noun Project
Before I tell you which COVID-19 religious accommodation form you need to trash right away, don’t forget that today is the big, free live Zoom on the new OSHA vaccine-or-test mandate. Join me and my partners Amy Epstein Gluck, David Renner, Sid Steinberg, Gordon Berger at Noon ET. Register here (https://bit.ly/OSHAETSZoom). Continue reading
Three federal agencies want to end retaliation by hosting a “virtual dialogue” with employers next week.
Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced a joint initiative to raise awareness about retaliation issues when workers exercise their protected labor rights. Continue reading
Is indefinite unpaid leave irreparably harmful to employees that don’t get vaccinated?
Image by Dominic Wunderlich from Pixabay
On Monday, a Texas federal court dealt with a nuanced issue relating to vaccine mandates. Continue reading
A federal court says certain religious employers may discriminate against LGBT employees
Image Credit: PublicDomainPictures.Net (Judge Gavel)
Do you remember back in 2020, when the Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employment discrimination based on LGBT status? But the court did leave one issue open, namely, the implications for religious liberties and other matters arising from its decision.
Last week, a Texas federal court filled that gap by concluding that certain religious organizations are permitted to refrain from employing those who engage in conduct that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs. Continue reading