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The Employer Handbook BlogJudge, my employer is so biased. They keep promoting me. 😲
That’s effectively the argument the plaintiff, an openly gay man, made in this case.
Taxation without representation (and a new workplace marijuana law possibly coming soon).
On Monday, I blogged here about an employee using CBD for her migraines who accused her employer of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. It fired her after she tested positive for marijuana on a drug test at work. One of my takeaways from the post was that particular state and local laws may raise the bar for terminating someone who uses medical or recreational marijuana outside of work.
Well, I’m going to assume that the City Council of Washington, D.C. read my blog and was helping me prove my point. Continue reading
The law doesn’t require a perfect response to harassment complaints. It just needs to be good enough.
What I’ve got for you today is another hostile work environment decision. But, unlike yesterday’s general civility code violation, well short of the pervasive or severe behavior that could interfere with an employee’s working conditions, today’s is a doozy. We’re talking about four instances of racial harassment: an offensive note, a noose, a written threat in the plaintiff’s locker, and then another noose.
And, yet, the plaintiff lost this case too. Continue reading
The place where male and female employees “routinely called each other by names describing a person with a large posterior.”
This case involves a plaintiff who worked as a part-time bartender who worked for a bar in New Jersey. She claimed that her supervisor created a hostile work environment by calling the plaintiff names “used to describe a person with an oversized posterior.” (The court deemed it unnecessary to identify the supervisor’s “alternate names” for the plaintiff.) Continue reading
Here’s when you may have to accommodate an employee’s use of CBD
A few weeks ago, I blogged about a situation involving an employee who used CBD products and tested positive for marijuana at work. She claimed that the employer took into account her underlying disability when it terminated her employment and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The employer countered that it did know she was disabled. So, the employer won.
But, now, let’s change the facts. Continue reading
Short of denying leave, an employer can still violate the FMLA just by discouraging someone from taking it
Two posts in one week about interference with Family and Medical Leave Act rights. Continue reading
Employers are singing the praises for the EEOC’s online mediation program
As an employment law mediator, my resume includes many years of private practice and service to some federal courts. But I cut my chops at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and have remained a volunteer mediator with the EEOC for over a decade.
If anyone asked me what I thought of the EEOC’s Mediation Program, I would’ve told employers and employees alike to embrace it as an effective way to resolve employment disputes without the time, cost, and risk associated with litigation.
But no one asked me.
The FMLA does not require clairvoyance
“Clairvoyance,” that’s a 10th-grade word. Let me Google it just in case.
Ok, we’re good. Continue reading
Is lower co-worker morale reason enough to deny a religious accommodation?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on religion. This includes refusing to accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship.
An “undue hardship” results in more than a de minimis cost to the employer. Objectively, paying more overtime is one example.
But what about when accommodating one employee lowers morale for others? Does that create undue hardship? Continue reading
The DOL not only provides guidance on the FMLA, but it also enforces the law.
Kind of like that guy, except without the snazzy mustache and a lot less British. Continue reading