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Hostile Environment Hiring & Firing Appeals

Fisher Phillips

Appeals Court Limits Title VII Liability for Non-Employee Conduct: Key Takeaways for Employers

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Can an employer be held liable for workplace harassment committed by a non-employee? The short answer is “sometimes” – but a federal appeals court just significantly narrowed this liability risk for employers in Kentucky,...more

Fisher Phillips

Will The Ministerial Exception Bar A Hostile Work Environment Claim?

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Religious schools expressed relief when the United States Supreme Court expanded the application of the ministerial exception in July 2020 in the combined cases of Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrisey-Berru and St. James...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Ask, Or You Shall Not Receive: 5th Circuit Nixes Accommodation Claim for Employee’s Failure to Ask for an Accommodation

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Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, when affirming summary judgment to the employer in a disability discrimination case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued two welcome reminders. First, to pursue a disability accommodation,...more

Lewitt Hackman

Unlawful, or Just Mean? California Appellate Court Decides Discrimination Case

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People with disabilities have legal protections under both federal and state law. California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits an employer from taking adverse actions against a person because of a person’s...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Seventh Circuit Says One Use of "N-Word" Insufficient for Racial Harassment Claim

In recent years, a number of federal appellant courts, including the Fourth Circuit, have issued opinions finding that a single use of a racial slur can be enough to constitute a hostile and offensive working environment...more

Butler Snow LLP

Take This Job And Shove It – Alabama Supreme Court Elaborates On “Voluntarily” Leaving Employment

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If you quit your job because of a hostile work environment, is it still “voluntary”? According to the Alabama Supreme Court’s July 12, 2019 opinion in Arnold v. Hyundai Manuf. Ala., LLC, it is. In Arnold, Hyundai hired Arnold...more

Butler Snow LLP

TN Appeals Court Reinstates Hostile Work Environment and Whistleblower Claims

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An individual may file a claim under Tennessee’s “whistleblower statute”—the Tennessee Public Protection Act (TPPA)—if she was fired solely for reporting or refusing to participate in illegal activity. Similar to federal law,...more

Payne & Fears

Key California Employment Law Cases: March 2019

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This month’s key employment law cases address the religious organization exemption under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and arbitration agreements....more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC –What Constitutes “Severe and Pervasive” Conduct With Respect to “Third-Party Harassment”?

Employers may be liable to their employees for harassment by non-employees under Title VII. Courts have found liability for this so-called “third-party harassment” in some of the following fact-specific contexts: waitresses...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Just What Does A Racially Hostile Environment Look Like? The Eleventh Circuit Provides Some Guidance

What constitutes a racially hostile work environment? Is one really bad comment specifically aimed at the plaintiff sufficient or do you need a sustained series of racial comments? What if you have both but no evidence that...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Don’t Ignore the Kissing Supervisor—Court Rules that Employer’s Knowledge of Past Behavior Negates Faragher-Ellerth Defense

Employment lawyers and most HR professionals are familiar with the Faragher-Ellerth defense to a claim of sexual harassment. In short, if an employer can show that (1) it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct...more

Fisher Phillips

Protecting Employees From Patient Harassment: It’s No Laughing Matter

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“Claims of sexual harassment typically involve the behavior of fellow employees. But not always.” So begins a recent opinion from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that illustrates the dangers of failing to take an employee’s...more

Genova Burns LLC

#MeToo Movement Insufficient to Revive Dismissed Case

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The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey denied an employee’s request to reopen her case based on alleged changed attitudes “post-Weinstein.” The Court also denied the employer’s request for sanctions but...more

Proskauer - California Employment Law

California Employment Law Notes - March 2017

Victoria Zetwick, a county correctional officer, alleged that the county sheriff created a sexually hostile environment in violation of Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act by, among other things,...more

Roetzel & Andress

"No Contract" Disclaimer in Employee Handbook Upheld by Illinois Court

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Employee handbooks have long been a trap for the unwary employer that desires merely to establish a set of rules and policies without undermining an at-will employment relationship with its employees. To avoid establishing...more

McAfee & Taft

Court rules unauthorized absence justifies firing

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The federal appeals court that covers Oklahoma recently ruled in favor of Dillon Companies, Inc., a Kansas corporation that does business as King Soopers, in a lawsuit filed by a former grocery store employee who claimed he...more

McAfee & Taft

Resignation triggers clock start for filing constructive discharge claims

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Federal law requires a governmental employee to file a constructive discharge claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 45 days of the “matter alleged to be discriminatory.” The vagueness of that phrase...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Rampant Sexual Misconduct in Indiana Prison Shows Pitfalls for Employers

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Believe it or not, this is not a scene from the new season of Orange is the New Black. It’s actually the opening lines from Orton-Bell v. Indiana, No. 13-1235 (7th Cir. July 21, 2014), an opinion authored by Judge Manion, and...more

Fenwick & West LLP

Yelling At Employee And Throwing Book In Her Direction Not Sufficient To Support Hostile Work Environment Claim

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In Brooks v. Grundmann, a federal court of appeals in the District of Columbia held that a manager’s conduct amounted to no more than “ordinary tribulations of the workplace” and was thus insufficient to support a minority...more

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