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The Employer Handbook BlogHere’s something you may not know about hostile work environment claims
Let’s start with what you probably know already — especially if you are an employment lawyer. Continue reading
Articles Posted in Sex
875,000 reasons why the customer isn’t always right
A staffing company allegedly fulfilling a customer’s discriminatory hiring practices learned this lesson the hard way. Continue reading
How to investigate claims of harassment — when the accused is part of HR
Yesterday, we addressed the risks of not letting HR do its job by investigating sexual harassment complaints. Today, we’ll discuss a recent decision underscoring the importance of thoroughly investigating employee complaints.
Court: Denying coverage for gender-affirming care to transgender employees is sex discrimination
If your business provides a self-funded health insurance plan to its employees, that health plan covers “medically necessary” services, and you’re not keen on defending sex discrimination claims, then keep reading. Continue reading
Must an employer accommodate an employee who won’t use transgender names and pronouns?
Readers of this blog know that the EEOC recently finalized its new workplace harassment guidance and that one of the contentious issues in the guidance, according to a dissenting EEOC Commissioner, is the EEOC’s position that misgendering an employee, e.g., by consistently using the wrong pronouns, can violate Title VII. Continue reading
Can harassment of OTHERS help prove that a plaintiff endured a hostile work environment?
Have you ever heard of me-too evidence? Continue reading
Yesterday, the Supreme Court cleared up when a job transfer may be discriminatory. But not really. Actually, not at all.
Suppose an employer transfers an employee, and that employee believes that unlawful bias fueled the decision. Does that transfer have to significantly disadvantage that employee to give rise to a discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Have you ever heard of an “intersectional” discrimination claim?
A white man filed a lawsuit against a company claiming that it denied him a high-six-figure executive position because of his race, age, and sex so that the company could search for more diverse candidates. Among the causes of action he asserted was one for race discrimination under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. A plaintiff suing under Section 1981 for a failure to hire must establish that “but for” his race, he would have gotten the job.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up. Continue reading
Can employers legally favor transgender employees over cisgender employees?
The words “cisgender” or “non-transgender” employee appear nowhere in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal workplace law that outlaws gender discrimination. But, according to a Pennsylvania federal judge, “that does not preclude the possibility that discrimination against both a cisgender male and cisgender female may be independent Title VII violations.”
I’ll explain why. Continue reading
Folks, misgendering an employee can be severe and pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment.
I’m going to tell you about a transgender man who worked for three years as a sergeant for a state prison. While working at the prison, he began the process of medically and socially transitioning to align with his gender identity. He underwent hormone replacement therapy, obtained a legal name change, and decided to live openly as a man.
Since he had to disclose his gender identity at work, the employee contacted Human Resources. On a phone call with the HR director, during which the employer inquired if he “had the surgery,” the employee could hear people laughing.
As others learned about the man’s transition, he endured what the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals described as “constant and humiliating harassment.”