Last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released an updated Enforcement Guidance on national origin discrimination under Title VII. The Guidance is used by EEOC investigators to help determine whether a...more
Title VII’s discrimination prohibitions include actions taken against white employees based on their race. Last month in an unusual, unpublished decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that reverse...more
Employees can consider a working environment to be hostile due to sexual conduct, even when the workplace is all male or all female. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and federal courts have long held that...more
How would your company react if legal counsel advised you that the mere act of recruiting on college campuses exposes the business to class action employment discrimination claims? Fortunately, this scenario will not happen...more
In recent years, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) has moved toward a position recognizing that certain workplace occurrences automatically meet the legal requirements for...more
In recent years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has attempted to expand the definition of race under Title VII. The agency takes the position that race includes cultural characteristics and individual expressions...more
Employers already know that Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin and citizenship status. However, they may not be aware that the federal Immigration and Nationality Act also contains...more
On July 29, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed the EEOC a major setback, concluding that Title VII does not protect employees against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. In Hively v. Ivy Tech...more
As previously reported in EmployNews, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recently taken the administrative and litigation position that the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII directly prohibit...more
When a terminated employee alleges that her firing resulted from discrimination or retaliation, employers often dispute those claims by noting that the employer never hired anyone to take the terminated employee’s position....more
7/26/2016
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Protected Class ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Remand ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Termination ,
Title VII
In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an Enforcement Guidance stating when employers’ use of criminal background checks to exclude applicants from jobs violates Title VII. The Guidance states the EEOC’s...more
7/13/2016
/ Appeals ,
Attorney General ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Disparate Impact ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Felons ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Justiciable Controversy ,
Remand ,
Standing ,
Title VII
Title VII allows federal courts to award attorneys’ fees to the prevailing party in discrimination suits. While plaintiffs typically receive their fees if they win a discrimination or retaliation claim, defendants can also...more
Most hostile environment harassment claims brought under Title VII involve allegations of offensive conduct by the plaintiff’s supervisors or co-workers. In a few situations, the employee alleges that his or her subordinates...more
Title VII and related federal civil rights laws contain short administrative claims periods that often result in preclusion of actions filed after expiration of these dates. These exclusions lead to frequent litigation...more
5/31/2016
/ Constructive Discharge ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Green v Brennan ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Race Discrimination ,
Resignation ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Title VII ,
USPS
The Supreme Court’s 2006 Burlington Northern decision concluded that employers engage in retaliation against protected employees when they take action that would deter a reasonable person from filing an EEOC charge or...more
5/17/2016
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Burlington Northern ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Remand ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Title VII
As transgender bathroom access legislation continues to generate controversy across the U.S., the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a new Fact Sheet unequivocally stating its position with regard to restroom use...more
The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, commonly known as HB2, continues to generate controversy and confusion. The new law has caused many employers to reexamine their policies with regard to restroom use by employees...more
In 2009’s Crawford decision, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that an employee who participates in an employer’s harassment or discrimination investigation as a third-party witness, falls within federal anti-retaliation...more
Before filing suit alleging discrimination, Title VII requires plaintiffs to file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. If the plaintiff files an EEOC charge, but includes claims in his...more
In recent months, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated its position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or...more
Plaintiffs seeking compensation for sexual harassment must demonstrate that they were subjected to a hostile and offensive working environment. Plaintiffs in same-sex harassment claims have the additional burden of proving...more
Employers understand that once they become aware of allegations of workplace harassment, they are legally obligated to investigate the claims and if appropriate, to take disciplinary action against the harasser. In some...more
Title VII prohibits discrimination based on gender. Employers generally cannot adopt different qualification standards for men and women for the same job. However in some circumstances, federal courts have recognized that...more
In recent years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal courts across the U.S. have increasingly agreed that discrimination against transgendered employees is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII....more
Last month, the Seventh Circuit again rejected the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s attempt to declare an employer’s standard severance agreement illegal under Title VII. The EEOC and CVS Pharmacy have clashed over...more