Part 1 of 2: My Sit-Down Interview With Former EEOC General Counsel David Lopez
On November 17, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published for public comment a proposed update to its Compliance Manual Section on Religious Discrimination for public comment, which has not been...more
Health Care Company Denied Religious Accommodation for a Correctional Nurse To Wear a Scrub Skirt, Federal Agency Charges - SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Tennessee-based Wellpath, LLC, a provider of health services in correctional...more
Adding to the list of updates for employers in New York state, a recently-signed bill expressly prohibits employment discrimination based on religious attire and facial hair. The bill adds another amendment to the New York...more
On August 11, 2017, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law Public Act 100-100, known as the “Religious Garb Law.” The law amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) by clarifying the scope of protection for...more
Security Firm Forced Out Guard for Complaining About Racial Insults, Federal Agency Charges - BALTIMORE - MVM Inc., an Ashburn, Va.-based diversified security services firm, violated federal law when it stopped...more
Employee Not Permitted to Wear Skirt Instead of Pants, Federal Agency Charges - DETROIT - Sleneem Enterprises, LLC, a franchise operator of Tim Horton's Café and Bake Shop in Romulus, Mich., violated federal law by...more
Michael Schmidt, Vice Chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment Department, discusses current employment law news, trends, developments and guest analysis. This episode presents the first of two parts of a timely and...more
The highest court of the European Union recently issued two judgments allowing employers to ban the visible wearing of political, philosophical or religious signs at the workplace (Judgment of the Court of Justice of the...more
Due to the recent terrorist attacks and headlines on religious extremism across Europe, the question of restricting religious expression in the workplace is becoming more prevalent for French employers. Employers would agree...more
On March 14, 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) issued a significant ruling clarifying when an employer may prohibit employees from wearing visible signs of their religious beliefs in the workplace. The...more
On March 14, 2017, the European Court of Justice issued decisions in two cases addressing the delicate legal and political issue of wearing signs of religious belief at work. Most media outlets and commentators who...more
Last minute decider – incapacity dismissal without considering new evidence was disability discrimination - The Court of Appeal in O'Brien v Bolton St Catherine's Academy has reinstated a Tribunal decision that the...more
Religious discrimination claims by a delivery driver for a catering company who was terminated the day after being sent home for wearing a religious head covering survived summary judgment due to the temporal proximity...more
In Achbita v G4S Secure Solutions NV (Case C-157/15) and Bougnaoui v Micropole SA (Case C-188-15), two Advocate Generals (AG) of the European Court of Justice provided conflicting opinions when considering whether bans on...more
Our friends at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have issued a Fact Sheet for young workers on religious discrimination in the workplace, which brought me back to the EEOC’s older Q&A and Best Practices on religious...more
The U.S. Supreme Court just issued its much-awaited religious discrimination decision in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch, 575 U.S. ___ (June 1, 2015) (No. 14-86). Samantha Elauf applied for a job with A&F and was denied the job...more
Federal anti-discrimination laws (“Title VII”) prohibit an employer from refusing to hire a candidate to avoid accommodating a suspected, but unconfirmed religious practice, according to a recent United States Supreme Court...more
Employer’s Motive, Not Confirmed Knowledge Of Accommodation Need, Is Basis Of Religious Accommodation Violation - Federal anti-discrimination laws (“Title VII”) prohibit an employer from refusing to hire a candidate to...more
On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores in which it held that a job applicant can experience religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act...more
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prohibits employers from, among other things, refusing to hire an applicant because of his or her religion or religious practice. As a general rule, employers must...more
In a case Justice Antonin Scalia described as “really easy,” the Supreme Court held that an employer can be liable for failing to accommodate a religious practice even if the employer lacks actual knowledge of a need for an...more
On Monday, June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court reversed a judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit which had granted Abercrombie & Fitch (“Abercrombie”) summary judgment in a religious...more
Last week, in EEOC. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., the Supreme Court addressed religious accommodations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The background of the case dates to 2008. A young woman...more
On June 1, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, ruled in favor of a 17-year-old practicing Muslim, Samantha Elauf, who applied for a job at retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, but was denied employment because the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently held that an employer cannot escape liability for religious discrimination under Title VII by arguing that it did not have actual knowledge of an individual's need for a religious...more