Last week, former FOX News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against her boss, Roger Ailes.  Ms. Carlson’s complaint makes a number of allegations, including quid pro quo harassment, and was filed against Mr. Ailes individually, rather than against FOX. Since Ms. Carlson’s suit was filed, six more women have made similar allegations against Mr. Ailes. In a related article, Time discussed how courts grapple with what is and isn’t sexual harassment.  Robin Shea also wrote about “he said/she said” in sexual harassment cases and pointed out that cases involving disputed facts still make it to a jury.

Discrimination

• The EEOC brought suit against a McDonald’s franchisee, alleging that the restaurant terminated a worker for being HIV-positive.
• The EEOC is investigating age discrimination complaints at Google.
• The EEOC sued popular chicken restaurant Bojangles over its alleged treatment of a transgender worker.
• A recruiter acting on behalf of an ad agency posted a job announcement on LinkedIn seeking  a “HISPANIC” copywriter.
• HRO Today covered a new study showing that the gender wage gap widens for women when they reach age 32.

Technology

• Forbes hypothesized that automation and firing of its union workforce saved Hostess and Twinkies.
• BLR wrote that employee communication is the missing link in HR technology.
• LinkedIn’s CEO Reid Hoffman stated his belief that artificial intelligence will make human resources and people management easier.
• HireVue’s Chief Data Scientist discussed how predictive analytics should not predetermine outcomes.

In other developments:

• The Department of Labor announced that it will increase civil penalties for FLSA violations.
• Jon Hyman argued that employment at-will is dead. 
• BuzzFeed covered voter initiatives in Washington and Arizona intended to raise the minimum wage.
• The National Labor Relations Board will add complaints filed by Regional Directors to the federal contractor database of “bad” employers.