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The Employer Handbook Blog
When an Accommodation Solves One Problem – but May Create Another
COVID vaccination mandates may be behind us, but the lawsuits they generated are still shaping how courts analyze religious accommodation under Title VII. This Third Circuit decision is a reminder that an accommodation can still be challenged when it allegedly creates a new burden. Continue reading
Why “This Is Unfair” Isn’t a Retaliation Claim
Employees do not need to use legal buzzwords to be protected from retaliation. But they do need to complain about the right thing.
General workplace grievances are not the same as opposing unlawful discrimination, and courts continue to enforce that distinction. Continue reading
When an Ultimatum Turns a “Resignation” Into a Jury Question
Constructive discharge is a high bar. But an ultimatum, delivered the wrong way and on the wrong timeline, can be enough to clear it.
That was the lesson from a recent federal court decision involving a pregnant employee who was told she could either keep working under at-will conditions or take six weeks of pay and leave immediately. The employer framed it as a choice. The court said a jury could see it as no choice at all. Continue reading
Helping Injured Men but Not Women: Sex Bias, Disability Discrimination, or Neither?
When employees say, “You helped him when he was injured but refused to help me,” it sounds like discrimination. It also sounds like a failure-to-accommodate dispute. A recent Ninth Circuit decision shows why that framing matters, and why getting it wrong can sink the case before it ever reaches a jury. Continue reading
How Not to Handle Suspected FMLA Abuse
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: it’s the Monday after the Super Bowl, an employee with approved intermittent FMLA leave asks for a personal day, gets denied, switches to FMLA, and later finds himself terminated for “abuse.”
That is not a hypothetical. It is essentially what happened in a recent decision out of the Southern District of West Virginia, where a federal court refused to throw out an employee’s FMLA retaliation claim and sent the case to a jury. Continue reading
Maybe Don’t Tell the EEOC You Removed Someone From Work for Her “Introduction of Race”
Me? I probably would not tell the EEOC that I removed a Black employee from work because of her “introduction of race” into the workplace. Especially after she complained about race discrimination triggered by a question about attending a Black Lives Matter protest.
But that is exactly what happened here.
And it is exactly why the employer lost on retaliation at summary judgment. Continue reading
When a PIP becomes the retaliation claim
Performance improvement plans are often treated as neutral management tools. This case shows how quickly a PIP can become the centerpiece of a retaliation claim once an employee raises equity concerns. Continue reading
No Harm, No Claim: When a Religious Accommodation Denial Isn’t Actionable
Not every denied accommodation becomes a viable lawsuit. Courts are still asking a simple threshold question before a discrimination case goes anywhere. Continue reading
Pay Equity After a Reorganization: What Employers Often Miss
Pay equity disputes are rarely about a single salary decision. They turn on whether an employer’s explanation for a pay gap holds together once the facts are examined.
A recent Seventh Circuit decision shows how reorganizations that blend promotions and transfers into the same role can expose cracks in that explanation. Continue reading