Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer to fail to hire or to discharge an individual or otherwise discriminate against such individual “with respect to his [or her] compensation, terms,...more
To prevail on a claim of retaliation under federal law, an employee must prove that he or she engaged in a “protected activity” under an antidiscrimination statute and subsequently suffered an adverse employment action. In...more
The vacation request of an employee suffering from depression and anxiety did not qualify as a leave request under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), according to a recent decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of...more
Health care employers face myriad challenges in complying with numerous laws—with physician hospital staff privileges and whistleblower issues not least among them. On the privileges side, a well-developed body of law...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied a motion to dismiss a claim filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of a class of individuals challenging...more
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently deemed a car dealership’s prohibition on “pins, insignias, or other message clothing which are not provided to them by the company” overly restrictive and a violation of the...more
In an unpublished opinion, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently sided with an employee in a pregnancy discrimination case. In Latowski v. Northwoods Nursing Center, No. 12-2408 (December 23, 2013), the court reversing...more
Employers often associate a lack of integrity with counterproductive workplace behaviors, including theft and workplace violence. As a result, employers may be tempted to subject employees and applicants to so-called...more
In an unpublished opinion issued on October 8, 2013, Owens v. Calhoun County School District, No. 12-60897, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an...more
11/4/2013
On August 29, 2013, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania—an intermediate appellate court—affirmed an Unemployment Compensation Board of Review (UCBR) decision that an employee was entitled to unemployment compensation (UC)...more
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a lower court’s summary judgment decision, finding that an applicant who refused to complete an application without some guarantee that a particular individual would not...more
While the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit all employer action after an employee has filed a discrimination charge or lawsuit, it precludes employers from taking an...more
In an unpublished opinion, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that an employee who was unable to complete the functions of her job while on part-time duty could not subsequently claim that ongoing part-time work...more
A federal district court has recently ruled that a night-shift emergency dispatcher with diabetes and hypertension, whose doctor stated that his health would be improved by working day shifts, could proceed on his claim that...more
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a home care agency, holding that a jury should be allowed to determine whether the agency’s reasons for firing an...more
In a case that underscores the inherent difficulty of implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in situations involving workplace safety issues, a federal district court in Connecticut determined that an...more
By now, employers are aware of a number of “Facebook firing” cases in which individuals who were fired for posting content on Facebook have been reinstated after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found the postings to...more
6/4/2013
As the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is intended to “strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women resulting from sex stereotyping.” Recently, a federal...more
A female plumber on “light duty” in the city of Chicago’s Department of Sewers filed a lawsuit alleging that her supervisor assigned menial work to her, prohibited her co-workers from interacting with her, and subjected her...more
A federal court in Pennsylvania recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by a female newspaper page designer who claimed that she was laid off because of her gender and her deafness in one ear. Mengel v. Reading Eagle Company, No....more
Is being licensed to drive a commercial vehicle an “essential function” of a warehouse manager’s position, even though that manager rarely is required to drive? According to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, that answer...more
In a non-precedential opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a hospital’s firing of a security guard who had admitted that he was a recovering drug addict. Because that firing was based upon the fact that...more
Based on the number of social media decisions from the National Labor Relations Board over the past two years, most employers understand that when employee Facebook postings constitute “protected activity” under the National...more
Employers often assign light duty to employees who are returning to work after recuperating from illnesses or injuries. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held, however, that neither the Family and Medical Leave Act...more
In an unpublished opinion, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the dismissal of a case in favor of an employer who refused to convert a temporary light-duty position into a permanent job for a disabled...more