“This case is close,” reasoned a federal appellate court. Unlike the district court before it, which granted summary judgment in favor of the employer-defendant on the Age Discrimination in Employment Act claims of the employee-plaintiff, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that a jury could return an age discrimination…
The Employer Handbook Blog
Remember this recent decision when one employee sues you for unpaid overtime
Has anyone ever sued your business for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act? This federal law requires covered employers to pay minimum wage and overtime at time-and-a-half when employees work more than 40 hours in a workweek. They can be expensive to defend — even the ones that aren’t collective…
My source told me that a federal court has blocked the EEOC’s recent LGBT guidance
Who is my “source”? I got the scoop from EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas, who updated us on LinkedIn over the weekend about a Tennessee federal judge who entered this preliminary injunction to stop the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from implementing this technical assistance document issued in June 2021 that…
A worker claimed religious bias over abortion rights. On Thursday, a jury awarded her over $5M!!!
In August 2017, a flight attendant sued her employer and her union in federal court. The plaintiff would amend her complaint a few times. Among the claims that remained in the final version, the plaintiff alleged that both defendants violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by…
EEOC: Slow your roll before administering COVID-19 tests at work
On Tuesday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 guidance. I went ahead and redlined the changes for you. But the EEOC wants to call your attention specifically to the updated circumstances under which employers may test employers for COVID-19 at work: EEOC’s assessment at the outset of…
Does Title VII allow a current employer to retaliate against HR for testifying against a former employer?
I’m pretty sure that’s where we left off yesterday. Let me check my notes. ✅give HR a coronary about ways to get fired (clickbait!), ✅blog about that 11th Cir. decision, ✅Day 1 “Manager Exception”; Day 2 “past employment,” ✅become their lord and savior (sacrilegious?) advocate. Yesterday, we explored a case…
Hold up! Is there an “HR manager” exception that allows employers to retaliate against HR?
Last night, I read this recent decision from a three-judge panel on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. It involves a human resources manager who claimed that her current employer fired her after it learned that she had earlier given deposition testimony in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against her former…
One use of the n-word can create a hostile work environment. The OTHER n-word.
I had planned to blog about this Fifth Circuit decision for a while. The appellate court concluded that a plaintiff who had pleaded that his supervisor directly called him a “Lazy Monkey A__ N___” in front of his fellow employees stated an actionable claim of hostile work environment. But then…
An end to certain sexual harassment NDAs? Check out this new bipartisan federal bill.
Earlier this year, President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The law allows victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment to litigate their claims in court even if they signed an arbitration agreement. At the end of last month, a bipartisan…
COVID-19 variants are rising but, whatever you do, don’t collect THIS INFO from employees.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted a pre-recorded webinar addressing questions arising under any of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws and the COVID-19 pandemic. The video can be seen on YouTube or in the video player below. A transcript of the webinar is…