Last week, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would move to reclassify marijuana (cannabis), moving it from Schedule I, where it’s currently listed with heroin and LSD, to Schedule III, with as less dangerous doctor-prescribed drugs like (Tylenol with codeine) and testosterone. The AP notes that this shift comes “as marijuana…
Readers of this blog know that the EEOC recently finalized its new workplace harassment guidance and that one of the contentious issues in the guidance, according to a dissenting EEOC Commissioner, is the EEOC’s position that misgendering an employee, e.g., by consistently using the wrong pronouns, can violate Title VII.…
In October 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted to propose new Guidance on workplace harassment, the first voted document the EEOC had issued on harassment since its “Enforcement Guidance on Vicarious Liability for Unlawful Harassment by Supervisors” in 1999. Yesterday, after receiving approximately 38,000 comments on its proposal,…
From the time it proposed regulations to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to when it issued a final rule earlier this month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received approximately 54,000 comments urging it to exclude abortion from the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” The EEOC…
In 2013, a healthcare provider hired a white man—let’s call him plaintiff—as its Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications. And he crushed it, receiving strong performance reviews and gaining national recognition for himself and the marketing program he developed. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, he was fired. As…
Have you ever heard of me-too evidence? Plaintiffs in discrimination cases may attempt to introduce me-too evidence to the jury to establish that the same harasser directed the same acts of discrimination or harassment against other employees. This evidence helps demonstrate a pattern or practice of misconduct that makes their own…
You can still register here to join us today, April 19, 2024, at Noon ET. Along with my partner, Amy Epstein Gluck, I will discuss the final rule that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency tasked with enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), released earlier this week.…
Suppose an employer transfers an employee, and that employee believes that unlawful bias fueled the decision. Does that transfer have to significantly disadvantage that employee to give rise to a discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? The Supreme Court addressed that issue yesterday in…
At long last, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency tasked with enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), has issued a final rule to implement the new law. The PWFA requires private employers with 15 or more employees (and Congress, Federal agencies, employment agencies, and labor organizations)…
I want to tell you about an Army reservist whose employer investigated him for taking fraudulent leave. That investigation spawned a grand jury indictment for theft. The employee was booked, detained in jail, suspended from his job, and eventually fired. Yada, yada, yada, a federal jury awarded the employee $1,500,000.…