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I can often draw upon my years of experience as an employment lawyer to predict from reading the first paragraph of a federal court opinion how the court is going to decide the discrimination claim before it. Continue reading
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On Monday, I blogged (here) about a manager who commented on the hands of a female employee who had suffered severe nerve damages to them after a car accident. He called her hands “disgusting.”
It didn’t end well for the employer. Continue reading
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Fred the Oyster [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Monster’s advice is pretty spot on. Except, that is, when the individual later decides to assert claims of hostile work environment and constructive discharge.
Because, as you’ll find out in this post, nothing undermines those claims like a thoughtful resignation letter. Continue reading
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A few decades ago, some men sued Hooters Restaurant, claiming that the purveyor of chicken wings, burgers, beer, and shapely female servers in tight, revealing outfits, was discriminating against males who were denied employment as servers.
That case resolved in 1997, with Hooters serving up a multi-million dollar settlement and opening up a few gender-neutral positions at the restaurant.
But, not servers. Continue reading
sailko [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
S nova [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay
I don’t know much about workers’ compensation.
Apart from a few standard provisions that I have in my employment settlement agreements, I know just enough about it to call a workers’ comp lawyer when I have an issue.
Or, like today, I know just enough that a workers’ comp decision involving a man who died during sex with a French local while on a business trip (RIP) is something that my readers want to read.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
You know that dream?
The one where the U.S. Department of Labor shows up on a Sunday to conduct a surprise wage-and-hour audit of your workplace, all the company payroll records have gone missing, and you’re in your underwear.
No? Oh, me neither. Continue reading
Image by DigitalShards from Pixabay
I’ve talked a fair amount recently about retaliation claims (here and here), mostly focusing on timing as the possible link between a protected activity (such as a complaint of discrimination) and an adverse employment action (like a firing).
The plaintiffs in those cases were unsuccessful in proving retaliation. And, in the case about which I’m blogging today, the employer almost prevailed on summary judgment too.
Almost. Continue reading
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Last week, I blogged about a situation in which two employees alleged that their former employer retaliated against them for participating in a workplace investigation. Each claimed that the close timing between the investigation and their subsequent firing confirmed that there must have been some retaliatory animus.
They were wrong.
What I have for you today is another similar situation. This time, we have an employee who complained about a supervisor’s sexual harassment. The company investigated. Then, it fired the supervisor and promoted the victim to supervisor. And then promoted her again. But, later, the company fired the victim. Continue reading
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