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Discrimination / Harassment

Employ low-skill, entry-level workers? Avoid EEOC’s anti-discrimination crosshairs

05/08/2024
“Protecting individuals seeking entry-level or temporary jobs from discrimination” is an EEOC enforcement priority. For employers, that means low-skill, entry-level hiring patterns will be scrutinized for any sign that some applicants aren’t being hired because of their protected class.

Beware the high cost of tolerating a racially hostile environment: $20.5 million

05/08/2024
A former employee has won a huge jury award over allegations that a supervisor and co-worker created a racially hostile work environment that the company failed to fix.

Keep up with EEOC’s new, comprehensive enforcement guidance on harassment

05/06/2024
The EEOC has published a new, comprehensive guidance document that covers what employers must do to avoid liability for workplace harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age and genetic information.

CROWN Act alert: Ensure grooming rules don’t perpetuate hairstyle bias

05/03/2024
One of the fastest-growing legal anti-discrimination trends is an effort to outlaw discrimination on the basis of employees’ hairstyles. So far, efforts to pass a national law have proven unsuccessful. However, that hasn’t stopped the EEOC from pursuing litigation against employers accused of natural hair discrimination, as a recent case shows.

Beware co-worker harassment of transgender employees

04/22/2024
Late last year, the EEOC issued proposed guidance on gender-identity discrimination and harassment, with final guidance due soon. Based on the proposed guidance, we know the EEOC views slights against transgender employees to be a form of sex-based harassment. Now it has filed a lawsuit that claims harassment because co-workers continue to use a transgender employee’s birth name instead of the one she now chooses to call herself.

Supreme Court: ‘Significant’ harm not required to support Title VII lawsuits contesting transfers

04/18/2024
It just became easier for employees to file and win lawsuits alleging that an unwanted job transfer was motivated by discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, even if the transfer did not result in a demotion or loss of pay.

Discipline consistently, equitably to avoid discrimination liability

04/15/2024
Every employee who breaks the same rule should receive the same level of discipline. Absent some solid, fact-based reason, treating some employees more leniently than others is practically begging to be sued for discrimination. That’s especially true if a manager treats members of a particular protected class more harshly or more favorably than employees who belong to different protected classes.

Women still being asked inappropriate interview questions

04/10/2024
Every manager knows some job interview questions are off-limits because they can lead to discriminatory hiring decisions, right? Wrong, according to a new survey.

New hires can’t use religion as reason to withhold SSN

04/10/2024
You must offer religious accommodations when possible, but not if it would cause you to break the law.

When one employee sues for race bias, brace yourself for a class-action lawsuit

04/10/2024
A California judge has given the go-ahead for a massive class-action race discrimination lawsuit against Tesla that may bring over 6,000 Black employees into the lawsuit. It’s the latest legal setback for the automaker, following years of lawsuits alleging Tesla tolerates racial discrimination and harassment at factories in California.