When employees allege discrimination, they must prove an employer’s discriminatory motive and connect it to a particular adverse employment decision. An adverse action requires evidence of a significant change in employment status, benefits, or pay. Usually, the proof comes in the form of failure to hire, a firing, failure to promote,…
Articles Posted in Race
PRO-TIP: If you want to arbitrate employment claims, have an arbitration agreement.
A client embroiled in an employment dispute with a former employee once asked me if we could force the employee into arbitration. So, I asked the client for a copy of the arbitration agreement that the individual had signed. After an uncomfortably long pause, I went back to drafting the…
The EEOC isn’t the only federal agency safeguarding complaints about race bias at work
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board made headlines when it concluded that nondisparagement and confidentiality provisions in severance agreements that businesses give to rank-and-file employees are unlawful. Yesterday, the Board made headlines again by releasing this Advice Memo in which it concluded that employees who engage in group discussions about issues of…
Documentation and communication FTW! (Well, good enough.)
After completing a 90-day orientation program for newly licensed nurses, a woman was denied a full-time position as a Registered Nurse (RN) at a hospital and, instead, transferred into a lower-paying position at another facility that the same employer operated. The woman — we’ll call her “Plaintiff” as we usually…
A coworker supposedly used the N-word “all the time” at work. Case dismissed. Here’s why…
No workplace is perfect. And the one I read about last night was far from it. The plaintiff, who is black, alleged that one of her coworkers called her “loud and black” and “ghetto” behind her back. She further claimed that another coworker repeatedly used the N-word in the office…
Oh, I forgot to mention that the man’s son worked for the same employer. He sued too.
Yesterday, I wrote about a man who claimed that his employer retaliated against him by forcing him to resign after he objected to attending workplace training on anti-racism and gender identity. It was a good story. We employment lawyers have plenty of them. But, perhaps, it wasn’t great. But what…
Now, THIS is a retaliation lawsuit worthy of becoming a bar exam question.
Sometimes, when deciding whether to blog about a recent federal court decision, I skip the “Factual Background” section and go right to the “Discussion.” That’s where I usually find the most concise, “meat-and-bones” explanation of what the case is about. I did that last night when I read this Minnesota…
Now, here’s how you REALLY compare two employees in a discrimination lawsuit
During Thanksgiving week, I blogged about a Seventh Circuit decision and what makes a plaintiff alleging discrimination “similarly situated” to another employee outside of the plaintiff’s protected class whom the employer allegedly treated more favorably. The Seventh Circuit concluded that a white man who was fired for effectively stealing from…
Take Note: Here’s how strong DOCUMENTATION torpedoes discrimination claims.
Yesterday’s parting shot advised employers — not legal advice, mind you — that well-documented termination decisions are much better than “take my word on it, we should just fire him.” Let’s test that theory today. Honest to a fault. The plaintiff in this case worked for a credit union. The…
82% of you wannabe judges disagreed with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
In yesterday’s blog post (and on LinkedIn), I asked you to adjudicate a white man’s discrimination claim. Specifically, you had to decide whether a white utility water meter reader who was fired for inaccurately reporting homeowners’ water meters was “similarly situated” to a black coworker who was not fired even…