In the last few days since the Presidential Inauguration and initial Executive Orders, we have received emails saying everything from “President Trump has voided Title VII” to asking whether “all equal employment laws have...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s long-awaited new Workplace Harassment Guidance was issued on April 29, 2024. The last one was issued in 1999!...more
The final rule and Guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this week on the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act of 2023 (PWFA) answers the question of “what took so long?”...more
June 30 will mark the end of the 2022-2023 U.S. Supreme Court term. The high court has a penchant for issuing highly anticipated decisions during the last few days of the term, such as overturning Roe v. Wade last year in a...more
6/30/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
College Admissions ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Race Discrimination ,
Religious Accommodation ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Substantial Burden ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new mandatory “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster....more
With the U.S. Supreme Court recognition of same-sex marriage back in 2015 and increasing EEOC scrutiny regarding employers’ pregnancy accommodation policies and practices as well as gender discrimination, your new parent...more
For those of you who have put off thinking about complying with the new EEO-1 pay data reporting requirements until “the end of summer,” per my 14-year-old nephew, the end of summer is here! So, it’s time to get cracking....more
Per the EEOC website, the EEOC expects to begin collecting EEO-1 Component 2 (the new payroll) data for calendar years 2017 and 2018 in mid-July, 2019, and will notify filers of the precise date the portal for this new data...more
After several months of leaving employers in limbo as to WHEN and HOW to file their EEO-1 reports this year, we BELIEVE we finally have a definitive answer to these questions.
...more
In the wake of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Young v. UPS, many employers have gotten “way too excited” and have “way oversimplified” their duty to accommodate pregnant employees (or not!)....more
Those of you who have been working in HR for any length of time unfortunately can provide your own accounts as to why the above title is not true regarding sexual harassment....more
Tennessee has enacted a new law allowing (but not requiring) private employers to give hiring preference to:
..honorably discharged veterans
..spouses of a veteran with a service-connected disability
..unremarried...more
If your initial response to this question is, "What anti-harassment training? Are we still supposed to be doing that? Isn't that kind of 'old school'?", your first step needs to be planning anti-harassment training in 2017....more
3/31/2017
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Harassment ,
Managers ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Supervisors
If you are an employer (aside from state and local governments, schools, Indian tribes and tax-exempt private membership clubs) which has at least 100 employees or which has at least 50 employees and a purchase order,...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recently issued a new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Guidance document which provides 20 examples of how the Agency expects employers to reconcile their regular...more
In our June 26 alert regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, we said we would continue to keep you posted regarding new developments in this area of the law.
Some of you may...more
7/20/2015
/ Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Promotions ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Protected Class ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
In a closely-watched case arising from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that an applicant or employee need not prove that an employer had...more
6/2/2015
/ Abercrombie & Fitch ,
Actual or Constructive Knowledge ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Discrimination ,
EEOC v Abercrombie ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Application ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS
Last month, the Tennessee Supreme Court narrowed the definition of retaliation under state law. Less than one month later, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which has jurisdiction over Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and...more
This is one of our "ones to watch for 2015" – Young v. UPS.
The legal question certified by the Supreme Court in 2014 was: Whether, and in what circumstances, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires an employer that...more
3/26/2015
/ Disability ,
Discrimination ,
Duty to Accommodate ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Disability Leave Law ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
SCOTUS ,
UPS ,
Young v United Parcel Service
The recent pregnancy accommodation Guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") makes it clear that discrimination against a female employee who is lactating or breastfeeding is illegal, in violation of...more
Many of you may have heard about the new pregnancy Guidance which was issued by the EEOC this week, as the EEOC distributed it to the mainstream media....more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued two new Guidance documents in March.
Use of Background Checks -
The EEOC and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces the Fair Credit...more
The EEOC prefers that these reports be filed on-line through the EEO-1 Online Filing System on its website – www.eeoc.gov. There is a sample EEO-1 Report available on the EEOC’s website as well. However, this cannot be...more
Windsor v. United States -
Issue: Can the federal government define marriage?
Holding: No.
Loser: The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was passed in 1996 and signed by President Clinton, was...more
6/27/2013
/ Affirmative Action ,
But For Causation ,
Discrimination ,
DOMA ,
Due Process ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Protection ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Fisher v University of Texas ,
Harassment ,
Hollingsworth v Perry ,
Mixed Motive Cases ,
Proposition 8 ,
Retaliation ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Standing ,
Strict Scrutiny Standard ,
Supervisors ,
Title VII ,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center ,
US v Windsor ,
Vance v. Ball State University
The four separate EEOC Q&A Guidance documents each are about 10 pages long. So, for those of you without the spare time to review them all, here is a brief “Cliff Note version.”
...more