Learn from a real employer's mistakes. Imagine this scenario: You are advertising for an open position. You get three applicants:
•Applicant 1 meets or exceeds all of your requirements.
•Applicant 2 fails to meet your...more
This is a G-rated post. PG at worst.
Toronto-area shop teacher Kayla Lemieux -- you know, the one with the famous Z-cup breasts -- has been placed on a leave of absence now that the New York Post has reported that she is...more
3/3/2023
/ Appearance Policy ,
Canada ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dress Codes ,
Gender Dysphoria ,
Leave of Absence ,
Popular ,
School Boards ,
Teachers ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Wage and Hour
There was this disability discrimination issue . . .
An employer who shall remain nameless had a tradition of throwing a little birthday party for each of its employees on their special day.
The birthday of one employee...more
4/22/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Social Anxiety Disorder ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Violence
A new series.
NOTE FROM ROBIN: For months, I've been thinking about doing a series of posts with very basic explanations of the federal laws that govern the workplace. I think the series would be helpful to people who are...more
3/25/2022
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
GINA ,
Race Discrimination ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
I'm not sure the ADA will let you do that.
There has been a lot in the news lately about job applicants who include their COVID-19 vaccination status on their resumes, employers who ask applicants for that information, and...more
10/8/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Medical Examinations ,
Medical History ,
OSHA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Beliefs ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour
. . . and an alternate universe without it.
It seems like only five years ago that the Americans with Disabilities Act was celebrating its 25th anniversary. But here we are, five years later, and the ADA is having its 30th...more
A cautionary tale.
In a decision issued this week, a federal judge in Greensboro, North Carolina, ruled that an employer's policy requiring employees to disclose their legal prescription medications may have violated the...more
And you thought you had problems!
A medical clinic in the St. Louis area had two employees (among others, I presume). "Rose" was African-American. "Daisy" (race unknown) had a disability. ...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled this week that severe obesity is not a "disability" within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act unless it is caused by a physiological disorder....more
Most charges were down, but sex harassment, LGBT charges were up.
On Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its charge-filing statistics for fiscal year 2018, which ran from October 1, 2017, through...more
A positive test may not equate to impairment.
Those of us who have spent a lot of time in the world of drugs (gee, that doesn't sound right) know that marijuana stays in the body for weeks.
...more
Pow! Pow! Pow!
The College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio (student body approx. 2,000), is going to have to go to trial on a triple whammy of pregnancy discrimination, failure to accommodate a disability, and violations of the...more
I do not think "associational discrimination" means what you think it means.
Amber Bridges, a former employee of the Magistrate's Court in the City of Indianapolis, claims she was discharged because of her association with a...more
How much do you know about an employer’s reasonable accommodation obligations under the law(s)? Take this quiz and find out!
Question 1: Which of the following federal employment laws require reasonable accommodation, either...more
Two court decisions came out last week that ought to scare the heck out of employers.
Both involved employers who seem to have been aware of their legal obligations and tried to comply. The employers lost their cases because...more
(When I think out loud, beware.)-
Ellen Kearns’ discussion of last week’s decision in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that employers may have to accommodate...more
Glad that’s settled....more
Former sports columnist T.J. Simers sued the Los Angeles Times for age and disability discrimination, among other things, when he quit his job in 2013. The Times had allegedly demoted him (although with no cut in his salary...more
Readers have been clamoring for my take on the alcoholism-discrimination lawsuit filed by Steve Sarkisian against the University of Southern California.
Actually, I got one email from a reader, who had a better take on the...more
Wednesday night the Los Angeles jury hearing the age and disability discrimination case of former sports columnist T.J. Simers came back with a verdict in his favor of $7.1 million, consisting of retro and future lost income,...more
Based on the information I had, I felt that this should have been a summary judgment case for the Los Angeles Times. But the jury in Los Angeles did not agree. Law360 (and some of our readers – thank you!) reports that the...more
Last week, I mentioned that I still didn’t really understand what “ethical breach” Mr. Simers had allegedly committed, and I threw out a request for help from someone (anyone?) with a media background....more
Mr. Simers’ attorneys called at least two Times executives to the stand this week as adverse witnesses. One, who was the newspaper’s Human Resources director in 2013, testified that Mr. Simers lied when he told Times...more
A psychologist retained by the Times testified this week that Mr. Simers scored “very high” for paranoia on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. His test results showed that he was “overly sensitive to criticism,”...more
Mr. Simers is suing the Times for age and disability discrimination in connection with his demotion. He resigned from the Times in October 2013, wrote for the Orange County Register for about another year, and then took a...more