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The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing
I’ll give you a million reasons not to ask employees and applicants about family medical history
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) forbids discrimination against employees or applicants because of genetic information. Specifically, Title II of GINA prohibits using genetic information in making employment decisions, restricts employers from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information, and strictly limits the disclosure of genetic information.
While GINA has been in effect for over ten years, it gets very little attention. Employees bring fewer discrimination charges under GINA than any other federal antidiscrimination statute that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission administers. But that doesn’t make it any less important or expensive when violations arise.
Check this out. Continue reading
On Instagram, an ER doctor said Israelis got “a taste of their own medicine.” CORRECTION: Former ER doctor.
A doctor whose job is to administer potentially life-saving medicine to patients, among them Jews, was reportedly fired after celebrating the massacre of Israelis by the Islamist terror group Hamas. Continue reading
Law student BLAMES ISRAEL for Hamas terrorism. Law firm promptly RESCINDS student’s JOB OFFER.
According to published reports, like this one from the Daily Mail, an Am Law 100 law firm rescinded a job offer to the president of a law school’s student bar association after learning that the student stated that Hamas’ slaughter of children in Israel was ‘necessary.’ Continue reading
Talent acquisition specialist fired after video surfaces of her xenophobic rant on a train
According to reports, a pharmaceutical company fired one of its senior talent acquisition specialists last week after she appeared in a viral video on a New Jersey Transit train calling a small group of German men “f—ing immigrants and telling them to “get the f— out of our country.”
Thinking about a mutual non-disparagement provision in a separation agreement? Read this!
I’ve drafted plenty of employee separation agreements. Continue reading
An accused sexual harasser thought he had smoking-gun evidence of race discrimination. As it turns out, however…
…the plaintiff missed the mark. Badly.
On the plus side, I get a blog post out of it.
WARNING: This could be one of my nerdiest FMLA posts yet.
At a bench trial in a Virginia federal court in 2021, with only a Family and Medical Leave Act interference at stake, the judge concluded, “[I]t’s obvious that there is definitely liability because there was clearly a violation of the FMLA. I mean, there’s just no question about it.”
But when the plaintiff asked the court to award her front and back pay, it denied her any relief in connection with the defendant’s failure to promote her after returning from medical leave.
Huh?
Five plant managers learned the hard way that betting on which workers will get COVID-19 doesn’t pay
About three years ago, seven plant managers lost their jobs following an investigation into allegations of betting on how many workers there would get sick from the coronavirus. Shortly before losing their jobs, a handful did not receive a bonus they felt the company improperly withheld. So they sued.
What happens when five of the most unsympathetic plaintiffs in recent memory claim state wage payment law violations? Continue reading
I know when you can start filing EEO-1 Component 1 Data. Here’s a hint: 🎃🍬🍫
Yes, soon after I start recycling old blog posts next month about the liability risks that employees and their poor costume choices present for employers, all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting specific criteria can start submitting demographic workforce data, including data by job category and sex and race or ethnicity, to the EEOC. Continue reading