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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Discrimination and Unlawful Harassment
“An employee who has suffered a heart attack has enough to deal with without having to face unlawful discrimination and unemployment.”
Image by InspiredImages from Pixabay
Continuing yesterday’s HR Compliance 101 theme, I revisited the EEOC Newsroom and found a recent release that addresses some considerations for when you have an employee that needs leave from work to treat for an illness.
Today’s lesson is a pragmatic and compassionate approach to providing accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Grab the tack hammer. It’s the ‘Tommy Boy’ of employment discrimination stupid.
Image Credit: Tommy Boy (screenshot from Vimeo.com)
Last week, I wavered about whether to include a line from Tommy Boy in a brief that I was drafting:
“I tell ya what. If you don’t know how to fasten your seatbelt, just raise your hand and I’ll have Tommy Boy here come back there and hit you in the head with a tack hammer.”
Ultimately, I decided that it was bad form. One could reasonably construe my use of that quote as antagonizing and bit snarky. Moi?!?
So, I’m using it for this blog post instead. Continue reading
2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris just floated ‘the most aggressive equal pay proposal in history.’
United States Senate [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
What does a $3.3M jury verdict for race discrimination by a strip club look like? I’ll show you.
Image Credit: Google Street View
It doesn’t look so good if you are the defendant. Continue reading
The House passed the Equality Act to protect LGBT rights at work. Here’s why it won’t become law.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Allow me to explain.
Continue reading
Examples of pregnancy accommodations include shift changes, rest breaks and, oh yeah, open-toed shoes.
By David Shankbone – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
Yesterday’s post was all about the breadth of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). We addressed a situation in which a plaintiff alleged that her employer fired her for seeking an abortion. The court concluded that, if true, the employer’s actions would have violated the PDA.
(The employer ultimately prevailed on the PDA claim because it had a non-discriminatory reason for firing the plaintiff.)
Today, let’s shift focus to accommodations under the PDA. Continue reading
A company allegedly fired a woman because she got an abortion. But, is that illegal?
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
A Louisiana woman claimed that, back in September 2017, she told her employer that she had become pregnant and that she was planning on having an abortion. The woman then alleged that, during her time off from work, the company violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) by firing her.
Let’s assume that the company did fire her for getting an abortion. Does that violate the PDA? Continue reading
Is it ok to ask a lesbian co-worker to use her ‘gaydar’ to determine whether a new client is also gay?
Photo via Good Free Photos
Short answer: No.
Slightly longer answer: No, you jerk, of course not!
In a few hundred more words, I’ll explain why. Continue reading