Don't expect the EEOC to appeal.
In April 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. The Enforcement Guidance addressed, among other things, harassment...more
5/23/2025
/ Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration ,
Trump v Wilcox
Dad-of-seven will go to jury on religious discrimination.
This sounds like the kind of thing that might happen to a woman, but this time it (allegedly) happened to a man.
A devout Catholic man (we'll call him "Dad") was...more
Is the media buzz accurate?
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued a new executive order, "Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy." The buzz is that the President has wiped out disparate impact...more
At least one court says yes.
True confession: When I was a little future lawyer, I was sometimes a pain. (So, Robin, you’re saying your personality hasn't changed in all these years?) When I was being especially “high...more
4/17/2025
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Performance Reviews ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Tenure ,
Title VII ,
Universities
Then again, you might.
Jocelyn Samuels was initially appointed to be a Commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Trump, and then she was reappointed by President Biden. Not long after...more
From the feds. This week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice issued technical assistance materials on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including one document titled...more
3/21/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Harassment ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
And you thought they’d be asleep the next four years. This week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a press release indicating that the EEOC would be cracking down on antisemitism in the workplace, with...more
I reported a few weeks ago that President Trump fired two Democratic Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (former Chair Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels). He appointed Commissioner Andrea Lucas...more
2/21/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
LGBTQ ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration
I've been asking this a lot lately.
President Trump’s first week of his second term in office was action-packed, as I posted last week. If you thought things would slow down for Week 2, you were mistaken.
You may remember...more
1/31/2025
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Employees ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Military Service Members ,
NLRA ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Reinstatement ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour
Whoa, Nelly! It's a stampede!
After President Trump took office on Monday, he lost no time in undoing as much as he could from not only the Biden Administration, but also going all the way back to the days of President...more
1/24/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Citizenship ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Donald Trump ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Immigration Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
Employer going to trial in age discrimination case. We had a blizzard last Friday (in North Carolina, 2 inches is a blizzard), and we still have ice and snow on the ground a week later.
Anyway, I've had enough of winter now...more
1/22/2025
/ Age Discrimination ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Documentation ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Performance Reviews ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
A (not so) perfect cluster. Happy new year, everybody. During the holidays, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that an employee’s pregnancy discrimination claim will go to a jury. The plaintiff (we’ll call her “Katy”) was...more
You can't make this stuff up.
I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving.
A federal judge just down the road from me ruled this week that a woman’s retaliation case should go to a jury, even though her sexual harassment...more
The bathroom battle (among others) continues. The State of Texas and the Heritage Foundation, on behalf of employers, have challenged the EEOC's recent Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. The lawsuit alleges...more
11/22/2024
/ AFL-CIO ,
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
SCOTUS ,
Texas ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
Here are the four things the employer did right. I hope everyone had a fun Halloween last night.
And before Halloween gets too far into the distant past, check out this scary HR story: A full-time adjunct instructor at the...more
11/1/2024
/ Adjunct Faculty ,
Documentation ,
Employment Contract ,
Ethics ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Investigations ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Employer's DEI mandate scores a win. A white guy refused to take his employer's mandatory "unconscious bias" training, and he was fired. He sued the employer for retaliation, his lawsuit was dismissed, and this week an...more
7/12/2024
/ Bias ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity ,
Employee Training ,
Insubordination Policy ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Termination ,
Title VI ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Employers who (allegedly) didn't file are being sued. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on Wednesday that it has filed suit against 15 employers in 11 states and in a variety of industries for failing to...more
Pregnancy regs, harassment guidance under fire. Not long ago, I reported that a number of state attorneys general had filed suit seeking to block the final regulations interpreting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Their...more
A lot has changed since Mother's Day 2023. Happy Mother's Day weekend, all, including you dads and kids (we couldn't have done it without you)!
How much do you know about pregnancy in the workplace in 2023? Take our quiz...more
5/10/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Documentation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Healthcare ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Title VII
*And are sorry you asked. Last Friday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its final regulations on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The regulations will take effect on June 18, just under a year since...more
4/26/2024
/ Abortion ,
Adverse Employment Action ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship
Just a little harm will do. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Title VII does not require a plaintiff to show that a discriminatory transfer to another position caused her to suffer “significant” or...more
4/19/2024
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Lateral Transfers ,
Muldrow v City of St Louis ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
What's good for the goose . . . A person who is discriminated against for not being transgender can have a valid claim under Title VII for “sex” (really, gender identity) discrimination.
In McCreary v. Adult World, Inc., a...more
What's legal, and what's not? Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in employment are increasingly being challenged in the courts. How much do you know about the legalities? Take our quiz and find out! This is a hard...more
After last week’s Supreme Court decision in Groff v. DeJoy, employers should prepare to seriously entertain, and grant, more employee requests for religious accommodation.
Gerald Groff, an Evangelical Christian postal...more
7/5/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
De Minimis Claims ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Substantial Burden ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship
I am pumped! Are you?
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a Field Assistance Bulletin to its staff on how to enforce the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, which was signed into law at the end of 2022 and is currently...more