Why the Increase in Demeaning Women Online Matters for Your Workplace: What's the Tea in L&E?
What's the Tea in L&E? "Passive" Harassment: When Does Workplace Decor Contribute to a Hostile Environment?
What's the Tea in L&E? Truth Hurts or Rumors? Lizzo’s Harassment Allegations Serve As A Good Reminder
Middle East Conflict Impact on the Healthcare Workplace: An HR Perspective
The Labor Law Insider - Pause Before You Discipline: NLRB Turns Against Civility in Lion Elastomers Decision
Labor & Employment Law: Vermont and Federal Legislative Update
Politics at Work
Employment Law Now: III-47 - New York, New World
III-41- Things That Make You Go “Hmmm” in Employment Law
Ann Curry’s Departure from the Today Show Presents a Number of Lessons for Employers
Generally, employers are not responsible for events involving their employees that happen after hours and away from work. But that is not always the case. In its April 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,...more
Employers wanting to create a more equitable and legally compliant workplace while also reducing their risk of litigation may want to pay particular attention to the California Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Wawrzenski....more
JT Washington by JT Washington Today, technology and social media are integral parts of our daily lives. Social media has transformed how we communicate and express ourselves. However, this transformation has brought new...more
Summary: Courts must consider allegations of a racially hostile workplace “from the perspective of a reasonable person belonging to the racial or ethnic group of the plaintiff.” Under this framework, “a single racial epithet...more
If an employer or coworker persistently uses a transgender worker’s wrong name or identified pronoun, can that constitute a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII? In Copeland v. Georgia Department of Corrections,...more
Last week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims from a university professor that she had been subjected to a series of retaliatory acts in the two- and one-half year period following her filing an Equal...more
We often hear claims from employees who threaten to sue their employer for creating a “hostile work environment.” When we dig into the complaints, often the employee is alleging that their manager is mean or unfair to them,...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has expanded its view of what a hostile work environment looks like and lowered the bar in terms of what a plaintiff must show to sufficiently allege a race-based hostile work...more
Over the past decade, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia) has substantially lowered the bar for demonstrating racial harassment in cases where a racial...more
Most employers are aware that a supervisor’s or co-worker’s use of the N-word or similar racial epithets in the workplace can serve as the basis for a claim of racial harassment. What happens, however, when the slurs are...more
Under Title VII, an employer may be liable for sexual harassment by one co-worker of another if it knew or should have known of the conduct and took no action. According to a recent decision from the Eighth Circuit Court of...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a manager’s behavior toward an employee was “reprehensible and improper,” but did not rise to the level of a hostile work environment under Title VII, and...more
Many HR professionals spend a significant amount of time investigating employee complaints and, depending on the outcome of these investigations, implementing corrective measures to halt and prevent bad behavior in the...more
In recent years, a number of federal appellant courts, including the Fourth Circuit, have issued opinions finding that a single use of a racial slur can be enough to constitute a hostile and offensive working environment...more
The New Jersey Appellate Division in Adel Mansour v. Brooklake Club Corporation, Inc., d/b/a Brooklake Country Club, A-2472-17T1 (App. Div. July 10, 2019) recently considered a hostile work environment claim by an Egyptian...more
One of the major trends in recent years in employment discrimination law has been the lowering of the standard required for a plaintiff to demonstrate a hostile and offensive working environment based on race or sex. Federal...more
If you quit your job because of a hostile work environment, is it still “voluntary”? According to the Alabama Supreme Court’s July 12, 2019 opinion in Arnold v. Hyundai Manuf. Ala., LLC, it is. In Arnold, Hyundai hired Arnold...more
“Claims of sexual harassment typically involve the behavior of fellow employees. But not always,” said a federal appeals court in Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC. The case shows employers must take employee complaints of...more
Over the past decade, federal courts have gradually reduced the evidentiary burden necessary for a plaintiff to reach a jury trial on claims involving sexual or racial harassment. The relevant legal standard calls for the...more
Employers may be liable to their employees for harassment by non-employees under Title VII. Courts have found liability for this so-called “third-party harassment” in some of the following fact-specific contexts: waitresses...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a recent decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the use of the N-Word in the workplace one time is sufficient to trigger a hostile work environment....more
Over the past decade federal courts have demonstrated a decreasing willingness to tolerate the use of racist language in the workplace. In repeated circumstances, courts have found even a single use of a racial slur...more
In its 1998 Oncale decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that same-sex sexual harassment can violate Title VII’s gender discrimination prohibitions. However, the court noted that in order to demonstrate violation of the...more
Over the past several years, we have reported an increasing number of federal appeals court decisions that have characterized even single instances of certain racial slurs as sufficient to constitute hostile environment...more
Employers are not strictly liable for hostile environment sexual harassment by a victim’s co-workers. The employer may be held responsible under Title VII if it knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take...more