Recently, I’ve focused blog posts on some quirky cases that make you think a bit. Yesterday, was the FMLA in Vegas case. Last week, was the EMT who argued that getting fired for groping a co-worker was discriminatory in light of his employer’s decision not fire an employee who hit a patient.
Today is not one of those cases.
Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s Samantha Hopkins. Samantha is a law student who just received her big break.
She gets to guest blog at The Employer Handbook!
(Want to guest blog on an employment-law topic at The Employer Handbook? Email me).
* * *
I give a lot of “respect in the workplace” trainings. And I generally tell the audience that, while a single offensive comment or act in the workplace is one incident too many, one instance generally does not create a winning lawsuit. That’s because a plaintiff must show that he/she was subjected to either severe (really, really bad) or pervasive (a lot of bad) behavior to establish a hostile work environment.
Now, there are some exceptions. New Jersey is one of the few states that has held that a single discriminatory comment can create an actionable hostile work environment claim.
But what if, instead of a slur, we have an assault; one which the plaintiff claims was not only unwelcome, but particularly disturbing?
Generally speaking, those who wait five years to complain about perceived sexual harassment in the workplace, don’t win lawsuits if they are eventually fired.
But what happens when the complaint takes the form of a status update on Facebook? Does that offer the employee extra protection?
Find out after the jump…
Play some Skynyrd, man!
(Just pretend the song is about reckless indulgences in the workplace, rather than drugs and needles and such, k?)
Well, this is a new one for me.
i·ro·ny (noun)
/ˈīrənē,ˈiərnē/
1. the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
If true, well then, good gawd, this!
A little over a year ago, I wrote here about a steel worker named Kerry Woods. Unfortunately for Mr. Woods, he was on the receiving end of a constant barrage of “raw homophobic epithets and lewd gestures” from his supervisor. Notwithstanding, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a $500K jury award for Mr. Woods, holding that Mr. Woods’s same-sex sexual harassment claims failed because he failed to satisfy the Supreme Court’s test in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc..
Oncale was another same-sex harassment case involving employees at an oil rig. In Oncale, the high court held that a jury may infer that same-sex harassment occurred because of sex when the plaintiff can produce:
Sounds like one crazy party. Or just another Thursday at the Pine Woods Apartments.
Kristen Glemser had no idea…
On December 7, 2006, Kristen Glemser, a marketing/leasing agent for Pine Woods showed up for work, just like she would any other day. Except that some of the ladies in the office had planned a small party of one of Ms. Glemser’s female co-workers.
On Friday, a federal court in Georgia dismissed all of the remaining discrimination counts against Paula Deen and her brother, Bubba, after the parties reported to the court that the two sides had settled.
The settlement terms are undisclosed.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Ms. Deen’s publicist wrote:
The Employer Handbook Blog