Last week, a California Department of Transportation worker with severe allergies to scents and household chemicals won a $3.3 million jury verdict in a disability harassment lawsuit. The employee claimed that his supervisors disregarded accommodations he’d been given, harassed and bullied him, and allowed scented items to be used in his vicinity. For five years, the agency had provided a reasonable accommodation for the employee’s severe allergies by asking employees not to wear certain perfumes and asking cleaning staff not to use certain products. The employee alleged that a new supervisor failed to enforce the fragrance-free policies, used abusive language with the employee, and had the employee relocated to workspaces that exacerbated his condition. The case is a good reminder that fragrance sensitivities can be disabilities, and may be entitled to reasonable accommodations or other protections under the ADA and comparable state disability laws.
Discrimination
A religious camping and retreat business in Texas
agreed to pay $70,000 to settle EEOC charges that the business demoted an employee after learning she had a pregnancy-related complication.
Ask a Manager’s Alison Green addressed
the potential fallout from an HR investigation of an employee’s report of workplace harassment or discrimination.
Two former Wal-Mart employees
filed a lawsuit alleging that the retailer’s company-wide policy denied pregnant women the same accommodations as workers with other disabilities.
A Pennsylvania federal court
held that a transgender woman can maintain claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act for employment discrimination related to her “gender identity disorder."
Technology
New York Magazine examined how the workplace instant messaging app
Slack is changing the workplace and worker behavior.
In Other News
The Washington Post reported that the number of CEO dismissals due to
ethics violations increased by 36% from 2011 to 2016.
As reported by
Fast Company, an Economic Policy Institute study estimates that US employers collectively fail to pay
$15 billion owed to workers under minimum wage laws.
The Department of Labor
suspended an Obama-era OSHA rule that requires employers to report injury and illness data electronically.
New York’s
Freelance Isn’t Free Act took effect on May 15, giving independent contractors and other on-demand workers some of the pay protections and other rights afforded to employees.