Many of you accumulate vacation days at work throughout the year. So did the plaintiff in this recent federal court decision. She alleged that when her employer denied her requests to use her unused, accrued vacation in 2018 and 2019, it discriminated against her based on her sex, seemingly because…
An employee who claims retaliation in federal court must demonstrate they suffered treatment was “materially adverse,” i.e., something that could reasonably have dissuaded a reasonable worker from participating in a protected activity, like complaining about discrimination. Last night, I read a decision from a federal judge in New York weighing…
…the plaintiff missed the mark. Badly. On the plus side, I get a blog post out of it. Direct vs. Circumstantial Evidence When employees lose their jobs and claim discrimination, there are two types of evidence they can use to prove their case: direct and circumstantial. Direct evidence of discrimination…
Of all the hills on which an employer should plant its flag to defend, this is not the one. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities, except when such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. The undue hardship burden is…
Want to see it? Check out the Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) for Fiscal Years 2024 –2028 that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released yesterday. It contains the EEOC’s subject matter priorities for the next several years. But, if your attention span for these things isn’t tip-top, I can…
I mean, sure. It’s a free country. This isn’t Communist Russia. But if your company is concerned about a subsequent retaliation claim, read on. Today’s lesson comes courtesy of this Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The plaintiffs brought gender discrimination (equal pay) and retaliation claims after the defendants terminated…
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the federal wage and hour law that protects all covered workers from substandard wages and oppressive working hours by requiring that employers pay employees minimum wage and overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek. Determining who counts as an…
Chances are, if one of your employees complained externally about discrimination, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was all up in your company’s business. Perhaps your business has had the not-so-good fortune of undergoing a Fair Labor Standards Act or Family and Medical Leave Act audit from the U.S. Department…
There are members of Congress who believe that many employers commit something called “wage theft.” Wage theft sounds ominous. I picture some fat-cat company owner intentionally purloining money from an employee’s paycheck and re-depositing it into some company slush fund. But it’s more than that. A prior version of a…
At a bench trial in a Virginia federal court in 2021, with only a Family and Medical Leave Act interference at stake, the judge concluded, “[I]t’s obvious that there is definitely liability because there was clearly a violation of the FMLA. I mean, there’s just no question about it.” But…