In August 2017, a flight attendant sued her employer and her union in federal court. The plaintiff would amend her complaint a few times. Among the claims that remained in the final version, the plaintiff alleged that both defendants violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Carter’s religious beliefs and practices.
How, you ask? Continue reading
Last night, I read this recent decision from a three-judge panel on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. It involves a human resources manager who claimed that her current employer fired her after it learned that she had earlier given deposition testimony in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against her former employer.
Assuming this to be accurate, did the current employer violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Continue reading
I had planned to blog about this Fifth Circuit decision for a while. The appellate court concluded that a plaintiff who had pleaded that his supervisor directly called him a “Lazy Monkey A__ N___” in front of his fellow employees stated an actionable claim of hostile work environment.
But then I read this federal court decision from Illinois about a black man who claimed that his employer retaliated against him by creating a hostile work environment with a noose. Continue reading
Earlier this year, President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The law allows victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment to litigate their claims in court even if they signed an arbitration agreement.
At the end of last month, a bipartisan group of representatives in the House introduced legislation to limit the use of nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements involving claims of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Continue reading
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted a pre-recorded webinar addressing questions arising under any of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws and the COVID-19 pandemic. The video can be seen on YouTube or in the video player below. A transcript of the webinar is also available. Continue reading
As a lawyer, a mediator, a workplace investigator, and a blogger, I’ve seen my fair share of employees claiming that someone(s) subjected them to a “hostile work environment.”
But here’s the thing. Continue reading
We’ve all been there as defense attorneys.
You find yourself defending claims of disparate treatment under a federal anti-discrimination statute like the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) where your client hired someone younger than the plaintiff. The only logical explanation, according to the plaintiff, is age discrimination. Why? Because the plaintiff just knows that she was more qualified than the other person. Continue reading
The muse for today’s post is whoever drafts the press releases for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Continue reading
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