Nearly four years ago, I blogged here about a complaint that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had filed against a West Virginia coal company. The lawsuit alleged that the employer failed to accommodate an employee who requested not to use a biometric hand scanner to track time and attendance. Why? Because…
Articles Posted in Religion
The best way to prepare your workplace now for President Trump’s new Religious Freedom Executive Order
Yeah, that’s basically it. Keep calm and carry on. There was a lot of talk over the past week or so about how the Presidential Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty would create carte blanche for discrimination against LGBTQ and women. (Exhibit A, B, C). Yeah, that didn’t happen. Indeed,…
Our day at Epcot: Food, characters and, yes, an employment-law lesson
Remember Hank the Septopus from Disney’s Finding Dory? I found his missing tentacle. And, my son ate it! Let’s hear it for the boy! Other highlights of Day 3 (Epcot) of the Disney sojourn with the family: Breakfast with many princesses: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle among others. Anna was taken with…
Woman fired for refusing to process same-sex marriage licenses loses her own bias claim
I’ll go ahead and file this one under “Wa Wa Waaah!”
Swastika cupcakes?!?
Yesterday, I read this story from David Moye on Huffington Post about a young Jewish girl’s birthday party at which the guests — friends of the birthday girl — were allowed to frost cupcakes. Well, it seems that two of the party guests decided that it would be funny to…
Got young employees? They pray to different gods? Then, you need this EEOC fact sheet.
Less colloquially, last Friday, the EEOC released this one-page fact sheet “designed to help young workers better understand their rights and responsibilities under the federal employment anti-discrimination laws prohibiting religious discrimination.” You can read the EEOC press release here. In less than a page, what’s on the one-page fact sheet? “Oh Homer,…
New EEOC lawsuit highlights the discrimination risks of mandatory flu shots
Last week, the EEOC announced (here) that it had filed this lawsuit against a Massachusetts employer, in which it alleges that the company violated federal law when it refused to effectively accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs. It’s a wicked pissah! Religious accommodations for flu shots. Here’s a summary of this new civil action from…
You guys don’t have to let employees pray to a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Probably.
Even a true “Pastafarian.” Most employment lawyers — especially us blogger types — are Godlike creatures never at a loss for a good war story. Like that time I sat through the deposition of a construction site employee who testified about how the walls of the control room were covered ceiling-to-floor with…
Five employment cases blowing up my DropBox and Pocket
You know, being a client of the Blogger King has its perks. (That’s me. I’m the Blogger King). When I’m not litigating and counseling on employment-related issues, I’m taking blog post requests and emailing weekly updates of HR goodies that don’t make it onto the blog. But, with my DropBox and Pocket chock full…
How the heck do you accommodate the religious beliefs of hundreds of employees?
Yesterday, I had one of those moments. You know the ones. For me, it was when a client asked me when I was going to blog about the Muslim workers in Colorado who were denied prayer breaks and, then, allegedly fired for protesting. So, I did what any self respecting…