In this #MeToo era, employers are, understandably, a little sensitive when someone raises a claim of harassment. Even with the heightened sense of peril, companies should remember that if they are doing the right thing—having...more
In setting a new employee’s pay, what do you consider? Past experience? Check. Education? Check. Salary at the last job? Not so fast. In a recent Ninth Circuit decision, the court framed the question as follows:
Can an...more
I have told clients for years that they ignore claims based on sexual orientation at their peril, and another court is backing me up. An Arizona federal district court just ordered a wine bar to pay real money ($100,000) to...more
4/10/2018
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Default Judgment ,
EEO ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Retaliation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
Like every other employment lawyer in America, I have been giving a good bit of thought to #MeToo and what it means for my clients. Many (although certainly not all) of the stories under this hashtag are about unreported...more
When you promote someone into a position, do you have to pay him what you paid his predecessor? As with so many things – it depends. Can you pay less if the promotee has less experience and a lower prior salary than the...more
2/28/2018
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Reversal ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Ever wonder why the severance agreement that I (or your other favorite employment lawyer) send you says “nothing in this Agreement prevents Employee from filing a charge with the EEOC” (or words to that effect)? I mean, isn’t...more
2/7/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Retaliation ,
Section 503 ,
Section 706 ,
Severance Agreements ,
Severance Pay ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Title VII
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, 2017 and it has released its yearly "Performance and Accountability Report." Although this is a look back, it provides insight on what is...more
12/27/2017
/ Age Discrimination ,
Annual Reports ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Genetic Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Mediation ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Race Discrimination ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination
We have said it before — the EEOC believes that leave is a reasonable accommodation and automatic termination when FMLA leave runs out violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even though at least one federal court has...more
If you require your employees to get a flu shot, what do you do with the ones who refuse on religious grounds? As with so much in employment law, it depends. In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Mission Hospital, a...more
When is it safe to take action against an employee (or a former employee) who filed an EEOC charge against you? As the 7th Circuit just found in Baines v. Walgreen Co., you can never –REPEAT, NEVER – take action because an...more
7/26/2017
/ Discrimination ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Pharmacies ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Walgreens
Before the Americans with Disabilities Act (and there was a time before the ADA), it was not uncommon to require employees to have a doctor’s note returning them to work “with no restrictions.” That won’t work in today’s ADA...more
My last post talked about Diamond v. Hospice of Florida Keys and what the Eleventh Circuit said about FMLA interference claims. As promised, this post will look at the Diamond decision’s take on the FMLA retaliation front....more
Setting a new employee’s pay based on what he or she made at a prior job is a fairly common practice—but now an illegal one in Philadelphia, PA. You heard right, Philadelphia has banned questions about salary history. This...more
A deaf person applies for a job and the employee who takes applications asks you “how can a deaf person do this job?” What if an essential function of the job requires interaction with the public or the ability to communicate...more
A recent Eleventh Circuit case under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) approved Dollar General’s termination of an employee on leave. The timing of Dollar General’s decision...more
For those of you who think the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) means you have to do whatever a disabled employee wants, I bring good news from of all sources, a jury in California. This case had it all—an employee...more
11/4/2015
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
FedEx ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Medical Leave ,
Popular ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Unpaid Leave
The EEOC has filed a lawsuit (EEOC v. ValleyLife, Civil Action No. 2:15-cv-00340-GMS) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) against ValleyLife, a disability support services company in Arizona, claiming that...more
The focus on employment background checks is not going away. A few weeks ago I wrote about Dollar General’s $4 million dollar settlement of a class action lawsuit based on alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act...more
Just how specific do you need to be when explaining why you rejected a minority candidate multiple times for a job that did not even mean a pay raise? That is the question the United States Court of Appeals for the Second...more
A problematic employee is teetering on the brink of termination and suddenly requests FMLA leave. Do you terminate him for cause or grant the FMLA leave and give him another chance to avoid the retaliation claim? What if he...more