It’s easy to feel paralyzed when it’s time to choose an employee to promote. You need to pick the best candidate for the promotion, but you also don’t want to risk a discrimination lawsuit. The truth is, if your choice is reasonable, a court probably won’t second-guess it ...

Employers that provide laptops to employees and that suspect an employee might be aiding a competitor can inspect the company-owned laptop without violating the employee’s right to privacy. Employers should, however, exercise discretion while searching the computer ...

Even if an employer has a good history of avoiding age discrimination in hiring, it can be sued for age discrimination if a reduction in force disproportionately affects older workers. Generally good hiring practices don’t prove that no discrimination occurred when drawing up the RIF list ...

Employees who have been fired or otherwise lose their jobs frequently encounter financial problems and end up in bankruptcy court. If the employee doesn’t list a pending EEOC or lawsuit claim against his former employer, the bankruptcy court may miss important assets and discharge the debts ...

State and federal laws protect employees who file discrimination complaints from retaliation for making those complaints. That’s why it’s a good idea to make sure you carefully document any disciplinary moves that occur after an employee has complained of discrimination ...

A group of black construction workers filed a race discrimination and retaliation claim with the EEOC. They complained of racist graffiti, demeaning language and their tools being stolen. The employer tried to shrug it off, basically arguing that construction sites are by nature crude and mean-spirited workplaces ...

Coca-Cola fired Dudley Thompson, who is black and from Jamaica, for not following company protocol when he went on vacation to the island—he failed to put his vacation request in writing and arrange for shift coverage ...

Several workers from popular reality television shows have filed wage-and-hour claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, according to the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) ...

An ongoing, acrimonious battle between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the California Nurses Association to organize nurses nationwide took a modest turn toward civility recently when a California court commissioner lifted a temporary restraining order that briefly muzzled SEIU officials ...

The EEOC has filed suit against California-based fruit smoothie retailer Jamba Juice, alleging the company allowed one of its managers to sexually harass several female employees. The EEOC says the company disciplined the manager, but then promoted him two months later ... 

You know it’s illegal under Title VII to discriminate against employees based on their race, sex, age and other protected characteristics. But a smattering of new court cases seem to expand that protection further—and create a new employment-law risk ...

Diabetes is not automatically a disability under the ADA. But if an employee can prove her diabetes substantially limits at least one of her major life activities, such as eating, then the employee is legally disabled and protected by the ADA ...

On July 24, the federal minimum wage will take the second step in the three-step increase that Congress approved last year. The wage floor will rise from its current $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour ...

Federal anti-discrimination law gives employees either 180 or 300 days (depending on the state they live in) from the time of an alleged unlawful practice to file an employment discrimination claim with the EEOC. A bill pushed by Democrats this year would have changed the 180/300 days statute of limitation in pay discrimination cases in a more employee-friendly way ...