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Discrimination / Harassment

Don’t worry that an innocent mistake will doom your case

07/10/2013
Employers sometimes mess up for perfectly innocent reasons. Everybody makes mistakes, and courts are usually quite hesitant to punish those mistakes if there’s no evidence showing some nefarious intent to harm an employee.

Warn bosses: Shut up about working women!

07/10/2013
The office is no place to discuss gender roles or women’s presence in the workplace. Be sure to warn supervisors against such talk, even in private.

Worker hinting at harassment? Provide policy

07/10/2013

You probably make sure all your employees have read your sexual harassment policy. That doesn’t mean they always follow it. If an employee is hinting that she’s being harassed, your best approach may be to hand her another copy and urge her to report any problems right away.

It’s now harder to sue for bias, retaliation

07/10/2013

Good news for employers: A pair of U.S. Supreme Court rulings handed down on June 24 will make it more difficult for your employees to file lawsuits against your organization, claiming discrimination or retaliation. Here’s the impact for HR:

Scrub protected-class info from résumés

07/09/2013
Here’s a simple way to keep many disappointed applicants from filing needless lawsuits: Make sure someone removes any application or résumé information that indicates race, national origin or other characteristics belonging to a protected class before the information is passed on to whoever makes the initial screening decision.

Settlement pays FDNY women $1.3 million to end bias suit

07/09/2013
The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) has settled a long-standing gender discrimination case with five women who work as emergency medical technicians. They’ll split $1.3 million under the terms of the settlement.

Add civility code to prevent avoidable lawsuits

07/09/2013
Do you have a comprehensive civility code? If not, consider adding one. A work environment contaminated by yelling, cursing and other uncivil behavior could lead to discrimination and retaliation lawsuits.

Mere guessing at compensation disparity won’t help employee win EPA lawsuit

07/09/2013
Here’s some good news. A court has quickly dismissed a pay disparity lawsuit that a university mathematics professor filed accusing her university of paying male faculty more than their female colleagues.

Employee complains co-workers ignore her? That’s not enough for discrimination claim

07/09/2013
Some employees just aren’t very likable, and that can lead to workplace awkwardness. Co-workers may ignore their prickly colleagues and only deal with them when necessary. That’s OK as long as the co-workers don’t end up going beyond mild ostracism.

Beware firing for forwarding emails that might support retaliation claim

07/09/2013
Be careful before firing someone for violating email policies that prohibit forwarding company documents to a personal email account. If the forwarded documents support an EEOC or other discrimination complaint, and if the forwarding isn’t “disruptive,” firing the employee could trigger a retaliation claim.