In early 2020, an employee at a global food supplier left work early with flu-like symptoms. That day she obtained a doctor’s note recommending that she “stay out of work for three days, from February 19-21, 2020.” The employee requested to have five days off to recuperate. However, the note…
The Employer Handbook Blog
Oh, man! A guy accused TWICE of touching women inappropriately claimed sex discrimination.
For every unicorn $25.6 million jury verdict you may read about online, thousands of discrimination cases fall well short of that mark. Way more never have a shot at making it to trial. And some don’t even have sufficient facts on the face of the complaint, which, if true, would establish…
If you hire someone who says they are in a drug treatment program, don’t do this…
The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination based on a disability concerning employment. That includes refusing to hire someone based on an actual disability, a perceived disability, or a record of disability. Whether an employer regards a job applicant as having a disability or learns about a record of a…
Indirect consequences of not accommodating disabilities at work can land employers in hot water
Yesterday, we discussed how an employee asserting a failure-to-accommodate claim under Title VII must establish that their request for a religious accommodation resulted in an adverse employment action. The same appellate court deciding that case also recently confirmed that the same maxim applies to failure-to-accommodate claims under the Americans with…
No religious accommodation. No discipline. No problem.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 creates a statutory obligation for covered employers to make reasonable accommodations for workers’ religious observances, short of incurring an undue hardship. At a minimum, aggrieved employees generally must establish three elements in a failure-to-accommodate lawsuit: the plaintiff-employee had a bona fide…
A employee in Puerto Rico needed an accommodation to avoid the humidity. Ok.
I’m neither a doctor nor a meteorologist but an employment lawyer. And, like the First Circuit Court of Appeals in this recent decision, I struggle with what the employer in Puerto Rico could have done differently to accommodate one of its workers. According to the opinion, the employee worked with…
Can employees use their religion as an excuse not to work with LGBTQ coworkers?
Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires an employer that denies a religious accommodation to show that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business. The next day, the…
Can a lateral transfer be discriminatory? The Supreme Court is about to weigh in.
Last week, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for employers to establish that an employee’s request for a religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 creates an undue hardship. But there’s much more to Title VII than just religious accommodations. And the Supreme Court…
The Supreme Court just revamped religious accommodations at work. I’ll explain in plain English.
About 50 years ago, Congress tweaked Title VII, a federal law that makes it unlawful to discriminate against workers based on their religion. It clarified that employers must “reasonably accommodate. . . an employee’s or prospective employee’s religious observance or practice” unless the employer is “unable” to do so “without…
What was an employer thinking fired a worker two days after complaining about “retaliation” and “harassment”?
On August 7, 2018, a worker sent an email. The email stated, “I fear retaliation” and “my colleagues and I have been the victims of continuous harassment, both sexual and emotional.” On August 9, 2018, just two days later, the company fired her. How do you think that turned out?…