Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment

Hooters 2.0? EEOC says that a lingerie store can’t refuse to hire male salespeople

September 17, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image Credit: http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/14339

A few decades ago, some men sued Hooters Restaurant, claiming that the purveyor of chicken wings, burgers, beer, and shapely female servers in tight, revealing outfits, was discriminating against males who were denied employment as servers.

That case resolved in 1997, with Hooters serving up a multi-million dollar settlement and opening up a few gender-neutral positions at the restaurant.

But, not servers. Continue reading

Four mistakes that you and your managers make when firing employees

September 16, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

sailko [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Well, maybe not you and yours. But, read on just in case.

A final word (for now) on the EEO-1 reports that you just love to hate

September 13, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

S nova [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Is that glass half-full, or is it half-empty? Continue reading

Get your damn story straight if you’re going to fire someone who just returned from medical leave.

September 10, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image by DigitalShards from Pixabay

I’ve talked a fair amount recently about retaliation claims (here and here), mostly focusing on timing as the possible link between a protected activity (such as a complaint of discrimination) and an adverse employment action (like a firing).

The plaintiffs in those cases were unsuccessful in proving retaliation. And, in the case about which I’m blogging today, the employer almost prevailed on summary judgment too.

Almost. Continue reading

They took her complaint seriously, fired her harasser, promoted her twice, and then retaliated against her?!?

September 9, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image Credit: Photofunia.com (https://photofunia.com/results/5d750cee089f7a9b358b4594)

Last week, I blogged about a situation in which two employees alleged that their former employer retaliated against them for participating in a workplace investigation. Each claimed that the close timing between the investigation and their subsequent firing confirmed that there must have been some retaliatory animus.

They were wrong.

What I have for you today is another similar situation. This time, we have an employee who complained about a supervisor’s sexual harassment. The company investigated. Then, it fired the supervisor and promoted the victim to supervisor. And then promoted her again. But, later, the company fired the victim. Continue reading

PODCAST: How to create a sexual harassment policy

September 5, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

Wolfmann [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

We’re two-thirds of the way through 2019, and companies continue to allocate significant portions of their legal budgets to addressing #MeToo and issues relating to sexual harassment in the workplace.

This isn’t going away any time soon.

How many of you would risk the retaliation claim here? (I would)

September 4, 2019 | by Eric B. Meyer

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

You’ve been here before.

One of your employees just complained about discrimination in the workplace. Or maybe s/he just participated in an HR investigation. A few days or weeks later, s/he violates your work rules and you have clear grounds to fire the employee.

Now you have a conundrum. Do you fire the employee and risk the retaliation claim? Or do you give the employee a pass?
Continue reading