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Discrimination / Harassment

Needle points toward court for WRS Compass

11/16/2011
Civil construction and environmental cleanup firm WRS Compass has lost its bid to have racial discrimination and harassment charges dismissed stemming from incidents at a Chicago work site.

Lawsuit accuses temp agency of gender bias, retaliation

11/16/2011
The EEOC’s Chicago office has filed a class-action lawsuit against Source One Staffing, Inc., alleging the employment and temp agency assigns workers based on gender, explicitly defining some jobs as “men’s work” or “women’s work.”

Union contract can keep you out of federal court

11/16/2011
Being a union-free workplace has many advantages, but there are also some built-in benefits to operating under a collective bargaining agreement. For one, such contracts typically require all rank-and-file employees to take their complaints to arbitration rather than filing a federal lawsuit.

Worried about reining in religious tension? Don’t ban all discussion of faith

11/16/2011
Some employers ban discussion of religion at work, believing that talking about faith might constitute harassment or coercion of workers who aren’t members of a majority religious group. But such a prohibition can cause more problems than it solves.

What’s in a name? Legal settlement just the same

11/16/2011
A Chicago ambulance service has decided to settle a lawsuit after a federal judge nixed the novel argument that some other company must have been responsible for alleged sexual harassment of its employees.

Beware firing after good employee complains

11/16/2011
Think twice before firing a good employee who has complained. If she can prove she earned excellent reviews and had good attendance, she may win a jury trial based on timing alone.

You’re hired! Oh, you’re pregnant? You’re fired!

11/09/2011
Capri Healthcare in Clearwater is being sued following an EEOC complaint that it rescinded a job offer as soon as it found out its new employee was pregnant.

Warning letter typically isn’t an adverse reaction

11/09/2011
Not everything negative that happens to an employee is the basis for a lawsuit. Employees have to allege both that they were on the receiving end of some sort of negative feedback and that there were consequences that changed the terms and conditions of employment.

Courts won’t second-guess honest business decisions

11/09/2011
Courts hesitate to second-guess an employer’s decision to cut staff for economic reasons. Generally, employees have to challenge such decisions head on, with direct evidence of discrimination. That’s hard to do.

Employee sues for bias? Check lawsuit claims against original EEOC complaint

11/09/2011

A court has clarified that the EEOC isn’t required or expected to look beyond what an employee states in his agency complaint when investigating it. That means that if an employee fills out the form herself and doesn’t provide enough information to trigger suspicions that discrimination has occurred, chances are the matter won’t go further.