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Discrimination / Harassment

Handle requests for religious accommodations by holding interactive talks about options

05/24/2023
Title VII requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs and practices. Employers must handle requests for religious accommodations just as they do requests for disability accommodations under the ADA—through an interactive process in which the employee’s and the employer’s competing needs are discussed.

EEOC issues one last update to COVID-related anti-discrimination guidance

05/22/2023
In response to the official end of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, the EEOC has updated its guidance on COVID-related discrimination protections.

Cost of segregating jobs by sex: $1.25 million

05/22/2023
Buying into old stereotypes about the kind of work men and women do can be a costly error. One employer recently found that out the hard way, paying $1.25 million when it was caught placing women in traditionally female roles and reserving more physically strenuous (and higher-paying) jobs for men.

Prepare to protect this summer’s unique corps of teen workers

05/22/2023
If you plan to hire teens for seasonal jobs, brace yourself for a teen workforce like no other before it. Prepare to deal with more than the usual amount of teenage angst.

SHRM research: Weight bias clouds judgment of co-workers—and HR pros, too

05/22/2023
Twelve percent of U.S. workers say they have felt unfairly treated due to their weight at some point in their careers, according to new research by the Society for Human Resource Management. SHRM’s research, conducted from February to April, comes against a backdrop of ongoing conversations surrounding weight discrimination in the workplace and the potential introduction of state and local legislation to ban weight discrimination.

Heed EEOC’s latest anti-harassment guidance

05/22/2023
A new EEOC report on preventing and addressing workplace harassment of government employees offers important lessons for private-sector employers, too. The report urges all employers to take a multi-pronged approach to creating an anti-harassment culture in their workplaces.

Your anti-harassment obligations are 24/7/365

05/17/2023
An employer has the same obligations whether the harassment takes place in the workplace during working hours, in the break room, at the bar during happy hour, via text message or social media, in a grocery store aisle or in outer space.

390,000 good reasons to open official-looking mail

05/17/2023
Three women sued a limousine company claiming they weren’t hired as chauffeurs because of their gender. But the company never responded to the legal documents from the court.

Beware dress codes with gender-specific rules

05/15/2023
If your dress and grooming code includes gender-specific requirements, you could be courting a sex-discrimination lawsuit.

Honoring pronoun and gendering preferences proves complicated

05/12/2023
Here’s a recent case showing that the EEOC is moving full speed ahead with test case litigation designed to make clear that harassment based on preferred pronouns and gender identity violates Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination.