The Employer Handbook Blog
Having done this now for over two decades, I understand how employers can often make employees feel underappreciated and even wronged. But not every slight and annoyance is tantamount to discrimination or retaliation.
Bad EEOC position statements can come back to haunt you. Just ask this employer.
There will come a time in your HR or employment law career when you must respond to a Charge of Discrimination filed with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by filing a position statement.
The EEOC has a great resource on effective position statements and stresses that the position statement should clearly explain the employer’s version of the facts. But here’s a bonus tip. Stick with whatever legitimate business decision the Charging Party mistook for an act of discrimination.
You’ll see what I mean in a second. Continue reading
EEOC: HR Manager used code words and other directives to staffing agencies to discriminate.
A few weeks ago, I blogged here about how a federal appellate court concluded that firing someone who isn’t a ‘good fit’ isn’t necessarily a coded phrase for discrimination. Still, I generally recommend to clients that they be more direct when terminating someone’s employment by explaining the legitimate business reason(s) for the decision.
Similar issues may arise when companies make hiring decisions. Code words used to describe protected classes that reflect a company’s hiring preferences generally aren’t hard to crack. And then they become costly. Continue reading
There’s a new FMLA Poster
After Sunday’s Philadelphia 76ers’ win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA playoffs, I didn’t think this week could get off to a better start.
I was wrong. Continue reading
Don’t let subjectivity, stereotypes, or statistics create age bias issues for your next RIF
Reductions in force are bad enough. Don’t let decisionmakers mishandle them and create litigation risks.
Rarely, futility and fear of retaliation excuse an employee from complaining about harassment. Here’s one.
When a plaintiff sues, alleging a supervisor subjected them to a hostile work environment, the defendant may avoid liability — even if the harassment actually occurred — if it took prompt remedial action to protect the plaintiff. Also, if a plaintiff fails to take advantage of corrective opportunities the defendant provides, the defendant wins.
But not always. Continue reading
Can a Jew discriminate against other Jews at work because they are Jewish?
Last night, I read a decision from a federal court in New York involving a plaintiff, who is Jewish, who claimed that her employer and her supervisor discriminated against her based on her religion.
The plaintiff identified many incidents that, in her view, demonstrate bias against her as a Jewish person, either in the form of overtly anti-Semitic comments or what she refers to as microaggressions. Among them, the plaintiff claimed that her supervisor told her that she “does not want an old Jewish woman running a multicultural department.”
But here’s the thing.
New federal legislation will end mandatory arbitration of race discrimination claims
Last year, President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 into law. The name of the new law speaks for itself. Victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault at work that previously signed arbitration agreements can arbitrate their claims but don’t have to.
Yesterday, multiple news outlets, including Roll Call’s Ryan Tarinelli, reported that both the House and Senate will introduce a bill soon to end the forced arbitration of race discrimination claims in the workplace. Continue reading
When an employer points out actual performance problems, it’s probably not a pretext for discrimination
I’ve seen my share of lawsuits in which plaintiffs use discrimination as an excuse for the performance issues that led to their termination of employment. Although. I have yet to meet a plaintiff-employee whom the defendant-employment can convince to dismiss his discrimination lawsuit because there was no discrimination to begin with.
This seems like a lawsuit that should have been dropped sooner. Continue reading