Protecting yourself and your organization from lawsuits starts the minute you decide to hire someone. Potential lawsuit land mines line your path. To stay out of court, build your hiring process around these principles:
In a case that has simple yet profound lessons for employers, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that an employer wasn’t liable for co-worker harassment—all because the company acted fast and effectively when it discovered the harassment.
Propak Logistics, an Arkansas-based freight management company, has drawn the ire of the EEOC, which is suing the firm for refusing to hire applicants who weren’t Hispanic for nonmanagement positions at its plant in Shelby.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is accusing Norfolk Southern Railway of sex discrimination in a lawsuit filed recently in Maryland. The lawsuit says Norfolk Southern supervisors deprived a female employee of an opportunity for the training she would need to be promoted to a yardmaster.
Have you checked your company’s bulletin boards lately? Do they show the correct, updated federal- and state-law posters? As this week’s new court ruling shows, poster mistakes can actually breathe new life into supposedly dead employment lawsuits …
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was designed to ensure pay equity for women. It does a whole lot more than that! Learn how this landmark legislation affects all protected employee classes and could influence your employee benefits program.
Last year, U.S. employees filed a record number of legal complaints claiming they suffered discrimination at work. You know that U.S. anti-discrimination laws require managers to treat all applicants and employees equally. But what, specifically, do the laws require of supervisors and managers? Here’s a rundown:
Q. Carlos, a longtime Latino employee, frequently complains that he is paid less than his white, non-Latino counterparts. He blames this pay discrepancy on a previous supervisor who allegedly denied him several promotions in the late 1990s because of his national origin. I have heard about the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Could it affect us in this case?
Under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, each paycheck that unfairly pays a worker less than it should is a discriminatory act. Now is the time to audit your pay policies. Involve your attorneys—to take advantage of attorney-client privilege protection while you correct any discriminatory practices you uncover.
Despite the daily economic lamentations, some employers are still hiring. Employers that are hiring may think they are in the catbird seat because they may have hundreds of applicants for each position. But a bonanza of applicants is no excuse for shoddy hiring practices.
J.C. Penney has agreed to settle a racial discrimination suit filed by Reinell Singh, an African-American employee at a Staten Island store. Singh alleged her supervisor used racially offensive names when referring to her and ultimately fired her because of her race.
Last year, U.S. employees filed a record number of legal complaints claiming they suffered discrimination at work. You know that U.S. anti-discrimination laws require managers to treat all applicants and employees equally. But what, specifically, do the laws require of supervisors and managers? Here’s a rundown.
Despite the daily economic lamentations, some employers are still hiring. Those employers may think they are in the catbird seat because they may have hundreds of applicants for each position. But a bonanza of applicants is no excuse for shoddy hiring practices. You must make sure they comply with state and federal laws.
A Beaumont-area Victoria’s Secret employee recently filed suit in Jefferson County District Court alleging she was discriminated against because of her pregnancy. Krystal Burns brought her suit under Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Texas Labor Code.
So you’ve had enough. The employee messed up big time again and you
can’t take it any more. Thank goodness all your ducks have been lined
up by a supervisor who documented previous poor performance. There’s
even a “last chance” agreement in the employee’s file. What a gift! Go
ahead and pull the plug. This is a worry-free decision, right? Not so
fast, as a new court ruling shows. First, you better make sure the
previous documentation was written by an unbiased supervisor. This begs
the timely question: “Who can you trust any more?”
Do you sometimes let employees bend company policy … just a little? It’s
really no big deal, right? A new court ruling warns that if you start
bending a policy for one, you’d better be ready to bend it for all.
Being flexible can sometimes be fatal.
HR Law 101: Protecting yourself and your company from lawsuits starts the minute you decide to hire someone. Potential lawsuit land mines line your path. Federal laws provide a patchwork of legislation protecting workers and applicants from discrimination by employers ...
On Jan. 26, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Title VII protects from retaliation employees who cooperate with employers’ internal harassment investigations. Some attorneys worry the decision will open the litigation floodgates for employees who believe they have suffered retaliation.
During this term, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider employment cases concerning arbitration, pregnancy discrimination, protected activity and union fee use.
Title VII prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from religious discrimination. It outlaws treating employees or applicants differently based on their religion in any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, promotions, discipline and pay. To help employers comply with the law, the EEOC issued new, specific guidelines in 2008.
An Elkhart employer is off the hook for retaliatory discharge for now—but maybe not for long. Lisa Lubarsky was reportedly a good employee of INOVA Federal Credit Union in Elkhart. But then she sued in a South Bend federal court for retaliatory discharge under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...
Hiring decisions are tough, especially when you add the worry over whether rejected applicants may think you discriminated against them. But as long as you don’t actively conceal critical facts about whom you hired, rejected applicants have to move fast to sue ...
Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and applicants based on their religion. The EEOC recently published guidance to help employers deal with employees’ religion-based questions regarding time off, free speech, religious clothing and more ...
The definition of a disability is now satisfied if a claimant shows that he has been subjected to an action prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act because of an actual or perceived impairment without regard to whether the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity.
When an employee announces she’s pregnant, her employer had better be aware of the federal pregnancy discrimination law, state maternity leave laws and the employee’s right to FMLA and pregnancy disability leave.
Doesn’t it seem like once an employee complains about harassment or
discrimination they enter some kind of “employee protection program,”
much like the witness protection program? They become practically
untouchable because employers are so afraid of being hit with
retaliation lawsuits. You may have legitimate business reasons—such a
restructuring—to eliminate a complainer’s job, just first sit back and
think how it will look to a jury ...
Question: Employers often feel cornered when poor-performing employees take
job-protected FMLA leave. Can you terminate such employees while
they’re out on leave? It often comes down to one question: How well
have you documented the poor performance? …
Employers that think their liability ends when a terminated employee walks out the door better think again. A recent New Jersey case expanded employees’ rights to sue employers for post-termination nonemployment-related conduct. In the wake of the decision, courts may construe common employer acts as retaliation ...
When one of your employees
confides in her manager that she’s being harassed by a co-worker, what
will that manager say? Hopefully, it’ll be something more constructive
than “Go along with it,”...
In November 2004, members of the board of Maracci Temple 13 in Detroit called Eronda Garner into a meeting. Garner, a part-time bartender for the Grenadier Lounge, which the temple runs, was pregnant. The board told her she was being let go because it feared tending bar was unsafe for a pregnant woman ...
Earlier this year, the U. S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, whose decisions apply to Michigan employers, expanded the coverage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s anti-retaliation provision when it held that the fiancé of an employee who made a complaint to the EEOC could bring a retaliation action when he was discharged by the employer ...
Bad news for employers: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 27 that employees who suffer retaliation after voicing complaints about on-the-job race discrimination can file lawsuits under a little-known Civil War-era law. The result: increased risk of retaliation lawsuits and bigger jury awards.
Employers, take notice: A new type of accommodation is required in New Jersey. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has signed into law an amendment to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) that makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee because of a sincerely held religious practice or observance ...
Do you have to treat transgendered job applicants differently? Which
box, if any, do you check on the application—male or female? And what
special laws must you know about?
Q. We are a small not-for-profit organization with eight full-time and 20 (give or take) part-time employees. One of our full-time employees is asking about maternity leave. We currently do not have a policy in place for maternity leave. What are our options? ...
The Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) is the state’s super anti-discrimination law combining the elements of several federal laws, including Title VII, the ADEA and the ADA. While those federal anti-discrimination laws cover employers with 15 or more employees, the MHRA covers all employers regardless of size ...
In recent months, the EEOC has made a lot of noise about new initiatives to combat workplace discrimination. Three of the most prominent include (1) the E-RACE Initiative, (2) employment testing and (3) protections for caregivers ...
Eugene Gates Jr. had worked in a Charlotte, N.C., grocery store for nearly 40 years when it was purchased by Compare Foods, based in Freeport, N.Y. Shortly after the buyout, Compare cut his hours in half and gave his shifts to a young Hispanic worker ...
Eugene Gates Jr. had worked as a meat slicer in a Charlotte grocery store for nearly 40 years when it was purchased by Compare Foods, of Freeport, N.Y. Shortly after the buyout, the company cut his hours in half and gave his shifts to a young Hispanic worker, telling Gates the company needed someone who could better relate to the store’s customers ...
Goshen-based Supreme Corporation, the nation’s leading truck body manufacturer, has agreed to pay $427,000 to settle a race discrimination lawsuit with the EEOC and seven former employees ...
Can a boss hire or promote people simply because he has a religious
obligation to “help his own?” Can managers incorporate their religious
beliefs when making employment decisions?
Q. We are a nonunion plant that uses a seniority-based bidding system for work shifts. A recent hire has complained that due to his lack of seniority, he is consistently being scheduled to work on Saturday, which is his Sabbath. Do we have to accommodate his religion by honoring his request to never work on Saturdays? ...
Advances in genetic research have renewed attention on the workplace implications of genetic testing. Genetic research has many potential benefits. But there is growing concern that employers with access to genetic information may use it to discriminate ...
The EEOC has slapped The Geo Group, a Boca Raton-based prison management company, with a religious discrimination lawsuit over the company’s 2005 ban on Muslim head scarves ...
Q. An employee of ours has a very distinct, offensive odor. I received several complaints about the smell, so I confronted the employee, hoping to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, he did not respond well and threatened to sue. Does he have a case? ...
In May 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Inc., a case that limits the potential liability of employers in wage discrimination claims brought under Title VII. Although New Jersey state courts often look to federal decisions for guidance, it is uncertain how Ledbetter will be applied in a state court action involving the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination ...
The EEOC recently issued enforcement guidance declaring that disparate treatment of employees who care for children, parents or other family members violates federal law. “Disparate treatment” generally means an employer intentionally treated employees differently because of a protected factor such as race, gender, age or—in this case—their need to care for family members ...
The Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) is North Carolina’s super anti-discrimination law combining elements of several federal laws, including Title VII, the Fair Labor Standards Act, OSHA and USERRA. The Employment Discrimination Bureau in the state Department of Labor (www.nclabor.com/edb/edb.htm) enforces REDA ...
Citing the toxicity of secondhand smoke, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed Senate Bill 500, the Smoke-Free Illinois Act, into law on July 23. The law takes effect Jan. 1 and requires employers to provide smoke-free workplaces for all employees. The new state law does not mean employers can ignore local anti-smoking ordinances. Municipalities may still enact smoking bans that are tougher than state law, but all Illinois jurisdictions must meet the new state standards when the law takes effect ...
Religious discrimination can take many forms, including, apparently the forced singing of "Happy Birthday" to that embarrassed-looking guy sitting with his buddies in the booth by the window.
Responding to a harassment complaint is a lot like running a sprint
race—even if you start well and do everything right, one trip near the
finish will wipe you out. For HR, the most common problem comes
when it handles an initial harassment complaint or lawsuit just fine,
but then some genius in the office decides to “get back” at the
complainer in some way. Doing things 99% right just isn’t enough to stay out of court...
Try this on for gross: A female employee gains access to her boss’s e-mail account without permission and discovers a vulgar e-mail sent by a male co-worker to the boss. The subject of the e-mail: her genitals. So, does this count as a hostile work environment? ...
When an employee says “No” to the sexual images posted in
co-workers’ workstations and to their sexually laced comments, your
company better listen … and act. It can’t become caught up in a debate
over “how much” porn is acceptable. As a new lawsuit shows, even if an
employee initially tolerates a sexually charged workplace, she can drop
the lawsuit hammer at any time.
n a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has handed employers a major victory. No longer will you have to worry that an employment decision you made years—even decades—earlier will come back to haunt you ...
The U.S. Supreme Court handed employers a major victory in a new 5-4 ruling. No longer will you have to worry that an employment decision you made years — even decades — earlier will come back to haunt you ...
Two recent court decisions—one by the U.S. Supreme Court and another by a Georgia court—mean employers may soon see a spike in lawsuits brought by employees rushing to meet a 180-day deadline for filing discrimination claims.
Philadelphia landmark Geno’s Steaks made headlines when it posted a sign that reads, “This is America. When ordering, please speak English” ... Although the Geno’s case deals with an attempt to apply an “English-only” rule to customers, it highlights a growing issue in U.S. workplaces ...
Try this on
for gross. A female employee gains access to her boss’s e-mail account
without permission and discovers a vulgar e-mail sent by a male
co-worker to her male boss. The subject of the e-mail: her genitals.So,
does this create an illegal hostile work environment, even though the
e-mail was not sent to the woman and she was never intended to read it?
Two new resources on federal compliance and a legislative attempt to address last week’s Supreme Court decision on pay discrimination head this week’s news from Washington.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed employers a major victory this week by clarifying that workers who claim pay discrimination must file their complaints within 180 days of the alleged offense. But this ruling could, in the short run, lead to a spike in pay-bias claims.
HR Law 101: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on race, national origin and religion. The law applies to all employers that have at least 15 full- or part-time workers and includes U.S. companies that employ Americans abroad ...
HR Law 101: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against workers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. An array of federal and state laws further refine the definition of discrimination ...
HR Law 101: Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Courts are increasingly taking a dim view of employers that don't take decisive action to prevent sexual harassment ...
Q. My company offers 10 weeks paid maternity leave. Recently, a male employee asked whether he could take maternity leave. I said no, only women are eligible to take such leave. Was I right? —K.R., Maryland
When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term on Oct. 2, look for a clear theme to the employment-related cases it has chosen to address: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...
If your organization uses credit checks in the hiring process, you’d better have a sound business reason for doing so or you could face a new type of litigation ...
HR Law 101: A “protected” applicant is a person with one or more of the characteristics defined by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (race, color, sex, national origin, religion), is age 40 or older or has a disability. If your hiring process tends to screen out certain classes of applicants, you could be libel for discrimination ...
THE LAW. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although Title VII doesn't specifically mention ...
