We all appreciate the practical importance of training. It can certainly help eliminate pesky and undesirable workplace issues. Heck, it can even help create a desirable workplace for employees....more
Most employers today have anti-harassment policies covering race, gender and other types of discrimination to help comply with state and federal antidiscrimination legislation and to take advantage of the affirmative defense...more
On Monday, August 12, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed off on a major expansion of the state's workplace harassment and anti-discrimination law. Although the measures were passed by the State Legislature against...more
Under Title VII, employers are vicariously liable for incidents of sexual harassment engaged in by supervisors. In its Faragher and Ellerth decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged a limited defense to claims of...more
This edition of Employment Flash looks at developments in labor and employment law, including a Supreme Court ruling that Title VII’s charge-filing requirement is nonjurisdictional and new state legislation in New York,...more
The New York Legislature on June 19, 2019 unanimously passed expansive new protections for protected classes and special protections for employees who have been sexually harassed through a new bill — S.6577. According to its...more
On the last day of the 2019–2020 legislative session, the New York State Senate and Assembly passed an omnibus bill. This legislation, once effective, will overhaul New York’s anti-discrimination laws and uproot precedent...more
Employment lawyers and most HR professionals are familiar with the Faragher-Ellerth defense to a claim of sexual harassment. In short, if an employer can show that (1) it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct...more
Stories of high-profile individuals in politics, media, entertainment and hospitality alleged to have engaged in sexual harassment, or worse, have been breaking at an unprecedented rate. In the wake of these allegations,...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued proposed guidance crystallizing the agency’s expectation that employers be proactive in eliminating workplace harassment. The Proposed Enforcement Guidance on...more
As a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit shows, the same employer defenses used to defeat Title VII discrimination claims can also be used to defeat claims under the Oklahoma Anti-Discrimination...more
Maintaining a company anti-harassment policy on a bulletin board and website is not enough to avoid liability for sexual discrimination according to a recent decision. On July 20, 2016, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals...more
Just last month, two federal district courts reached different conclusions, further contributing to the confusion as to whether notes taken during a Human Resources department investigation of a discrimination or harassment...more
On November 6, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in McKinnish v. Brennan, an unpublished decision, confirmed that an employee’s failure to report his or her supervisor’s allegedly sexually explicit text...more
Take the Cure: New California Law Permits Corrections of Wage Statement Violations - Why it matters: Employers may want to review their wage statements after Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that permits them...more