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Discrimination / Harassment

Equal opportunity discipline: Don’t let rogue bosses subvert your anti-harassment policy

07/05/2012

If you set rules for employees to follow, then make sure everyone in the organization follows them. That includes supervisors. Otherwise, your policies aren’t worth the paper they are written on.

HR director sues over president’s hiring preferences

07/05/2012
The former HR director at J. Chris­­to­­­pher Capital has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the Manhattan ven­­ture capital firm, claiming the company’s founder stated that he only wanted gay men and beautiful women working for him.

Does Texas have any unusual protected classes?

07/03/2012
Q. Other than race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, age and disability, are there any other protected classifications under Texas law that might limit an employer’s right to terminate an at-will worker employed?

Was Plano dismissal a layoff–or age bias?

07/03/2012
An electrician with 25 years of service to the Plano Independent School District has sued, alleging he was fired because of his age, not because the district needed to cut staff.

Title VII complaints involving nonemployees aren’t protected

07/03/2012

When an employee complains she is being harassed, that’s protected activity that cannot be punished. Like­­wise, complaining that a co-worker is being harassed is protected activity. But it’s not protected activity if an employee complains that someone not connected with the employer is being harassed.

When employee complains of harassment, act fast to fix it

07/03/2012
Resolve every sexual harassment complaint ASAP. That way, it won’t come back to haunt you.

Employee takes false allegations to the press? You can sue for defamation

07/03/2012
Here’s a novel approach for em­­ployers falsely accused of discrimination in the press. If you win the discrimination case, you may be able to sue the employee for defamation.

Texas EEOC complaints up for second straight year

07/03/2012
Texas employees are doing more than their share to keep the EEOC busy, filing more discrimination charges per capita than the national average.

Don’t sweat minor compensation differences

07/03/2012
Ever since enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, pay equity has been a hot employment law topic. In the intervening years, many employers have proactively gone over their pay scales and made adjustments after discovering apparent pay inequalities that crept in over the years.

Police called in response to workplace harassment? You must still act to stop future incidents

07/02/2012

If a co-worker, supervisor or cus­­tomer sexually assaults an em­ployee and the police are called in, the employer must still take reasonable steps to stop the harassment and prevent another assault. It’s not enough to rely on the police to take care of the problem.