The Employer Handbook

Articles Posted in Sex

by
yada-yada-1432923_640

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/yada-yada-board-insignificance-1432923/)

Let’s imagine that one of your female co-workers gets promoted. Shortly afterward, some of your male co-workers spread false rumors about how their recently-promoted colleague must have slept her way to the top.

Do you think that: (a) these rumors are gender-based, or (b) based upon false allegations of conduct?

The former could be the lynchpin to a viable sex-based hostile work environment claim. If it’s the latter, i.e., the rumors could have just as quickly been spread about a man, then the hostile work environment claim gets dismissed. Continue reading

by
pride-2444813_640

Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/en/pride-gay-nyc-new-york-city-flag-2444813/

A few weeks ago, a Pennsylvania federal judge reluctantly ruled in this case that discrimination based on sexual orientation is not unlawful (or you, could say, permissible) under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Continue reading

by
Phillips 66 logo.svg

By Phillips 66 Company – http://hrcpdocctr.phillips66.com/HR_P66_Comm/Benefits/BenefitHighlights.pdf, Public Domain, Link

Among Fortune 500 companies, 91% prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 83% prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.  [Source] But, under federal law, circuit courts remain split as to whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination based on LGBT status.

So, let’s say you’re a Fortune 500 company accused of LGBT discrimination in a jurisdiction in which the law may permit that type of abhorrent behavior.

Do you defend by arguing that the law permits LGBT discrimination?   Continue reading

by

Judge Brett Michael Kavanaugh

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in a case called Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc.  Although the Court’s decision has nothing to do with employment law — it’s a case about antitrust issues and arbitration — there’s a little something from Justice Kavanaugh’s that may be more than a little something.

At least as it relates to a big employment case that could be coming down Supreme Court Boulevard in 2019. Continue reading

by
pot-of-gold

Image Credit: http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/14050 (nicubunu acquired from OCAL (Website))

On most days, I blog for you, my readers, to educate you on new legal issues and to keep you ahead of the HR-compliance curve.

This is not most days.

Continue reading

by

LGBT Equality Flag Outside the Supreme Court (Unsplash)

By Matt Popovich uh (https://unsplash.com/photos/UVe-5ZyDdAE) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Shout out to Chris Opfer at Bloomberg Law.

Chris reported yesterday that the U. S. Department of Justice filed this brief with the United States Supreme Court in this case, in which it argues that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal employment discrimination law, does not cover discrimination against an individual because of the individual’s gender identity.

Is this a big deal? Yes.  Is it a surprise that the DOJ has taken this position? Heck no. Continue reading

“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”