Last week, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear a Title VII sexual orientation discrimination case. The Court let stand a March 2017 ruling by a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit that Title VII does not prohibit employers from discriminating based on gender presentation and sexual orientation. In Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, a hospital security guard alleged she was harassed and fired for being a lesbian and not conforming to the gender norms of a woman in appearance or behavior. Her attorneys at Lambda Legal plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Eleventh Circuit’s decision conflicts with the ground-breaking April 2017 decision of the Seventh Circuit in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College that sexual-orientation bias is sex discrimination under Title VII. The Second Circuit has agreed to a full court rehearing of a case challenging that circuit’s precedent that Title VII does not protect gay and lesbian employees against discrimination.
Discrimination
A suit filed in late June accuses AT&T of
age discrimination, alleging the company dismissed older workers as part of an effort to increase the technology skills of its workforce.
A column in
The New York Times offered
advice for when a coworker’s behavior seems discriminatory.
At a recent company event, employees of Tesla
accused the company of ignoring or enabling sexual harassment and making discriminatory hiring decisions for years.
The EEOC
sued a Tampa-based janitorial service for race discrimination, alleging the company instructed managers not to hire African-American applicants without special permission.
Technology
The Guardian asked whether
sexual harassment in Silicon Valley has reached a "tipping point."
Recruiters are using
geotechnology to target potential hires in the places where they live and work.
A Chicago startup is developing
AI and chatbot technology to help employees manage their health insurance and healthcare services.
Microsoft is using data-collecting software—creatively titled
Workplace Analytics—to measure employee productivity.
Wage and Hour
Efforts are underway in some states to
lower the
minimum wage.
Restaurant owners reacted to Minneapolis’ recent passage of a
$15 minimum wage bill.
Harvard Business Review explained
why it matters when workers are misclassified as contractors.
In Other News
Slate wrote about the Washington State Legislature’s recent passage of one of the most generous
paid-leave laws in the country.
The Washington Post and
Bloomberg tackled summer dress codes, questioning what “
appropriate” dress really means and whether men should be allowed to
wear sandals to work.
HR Dive covered a recent Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal decision holding that Department of Labor regulations limiting
tip pools are not valid.
Because efforts to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act have not been successful, companies may need to be prepared to report on the CEO-to-worker pay ratio mandated by the law.
