In general, once an employee tenders his or her notice of resignation, the employer is under no legal obligation to rescind acceptance of the notice. Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals cast doubt on this rule by...more
When a supervisor engages in sexual harassment in violation of Title VII, the employer can be held vicariously liable for the action even if it takes immediate steps to end the harassment once it learns of the conduct....more
Title VII and related federal anti-discrimination laws prohibit employers from discriminating against persons based on their membership in a protected category. These discrimination prohibitions include pay disparities. What...more
Earlier this year in its Abercrombie decision, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that an employee suing for religious discrimination did not have to demonstrate actual knowledge of an employee’s religious practices to trigger...more
Like most federal labor laws, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who oppose unlawful employment practices. However, a number of federal courts have adopted a...more
Most employers using temporary workers from an employment agency assume that they are liable as employers for certain legal claims. While a reasonable assumption, until last week, this status had never been formally...more
8/3/2015
/ Appeals ,
Control Test ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Multi-Factor Test ,
Remand ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Supervisors ,
Temporary Employees ,
Title VII
Employers routinely use Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) to notify employees of job performance issues. If an employee believes that they have unfairly been placed under a PIP, can this form the basis for an employment...more
Employers are well aware of their potential liability for workplace harassment claims involving co-workers or third parties. They also understand their heightened legal responsibility when the alleged harasser is the...more
As reported in EmployNews, over the past year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has aggressively shifted its position on the extent of coverage of LGBT workers under Title VII. In federal employee cases where the...more
Employers and employees often face frustrations when trying to determine the identity of persons who engage in anonymous acts of harassment in the workplace. These acts can involve notes, graffiti, telephone messages or other...more
Sometimes, employees believe that they have been discriminated against or harassed based on their membership in multiple protected categories. Employers often receive EEOC charges that identify race and sex, or age and...more
Last year, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a controversial opinion absolving a clothing retailer from failing to hire a Muslim applicant for employment who did not tell the company that the headscarf worn at her job...more
In its 2013 Nassar decision, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that plaintiffs who allege workplace retaliation under Title VII and related statutes must demonstrate that the retaliatory animus is a “but for” cause of the...more
Title VII and related federal civil rights laws prohibit employers from retaliating against an employee who files a claim, participates in an investigation or opposes conduct prohibited under anti-discrimination laws....more
For years, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) set a high bar for plaintiffs suing for workplace harassment. The court rejected multiple claims involving obnoxious and crude...more
Green v. Donahoe involves a Postal Service worker who alleges that he was forced to choose between retirement and a demotion and transfer to another position. The plaintiff quit several months after being given this choice,...more
5/8/2015
/ Constructive Discharge ,
Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Limitation Periods ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
USPS ,
Wrongful Termination
On Wednesday, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court agreed that federal courts have authority to review the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s attempts to conciliate discrimination charges when the agency concludes that the...more
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race or color. In most situations, these two protected classifications are interchangeable, with discrimination on the basis of color...more
In its Oncale decision, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that same sex sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII. However, the Court qualified this decision by stating that the harassment must be motivated by sexual...more
Over the past several months, EmployNews reported a growing trend of claims alleging that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgendered status violates Title VII if the alleged conduct involves gender...more
Last month, a federal judge in Illinois dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contending that a standard release agreement used by the CVS drugstore chain violated the anti-retaliation...more
In order to sue for employment discrimination under Title VII, plaintiffs must first file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within a certain time period after the last alleged...more
At the opening of its new term last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s appeal of a lower court decision dismissing a Title VII claim against the Abercrombie clothing...more
In order to sue under Title VII, plaintiffs must first file an administrative charge of discrimination against their employer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In many cases, the charge misnames the actual...more
Title VII requires employers to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs and practices. Understandably, courts are reluctant to make judicial determinations as to what are and what are not sincere religious activities. Last...more