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Discrimination / Harassment

Consider disclosing starting pay—it may be mandatory

12/06/2024
You may have noticed lately that more recruiting ads include the starting salary range the employer plans to pay. That was almost unheard of a decade ago. Credit the change to the rapid expansion of the pay-transparency movement.

Here come the new state employment laws for 2025

12/06/2024
States are emerging as prime sources of new employment-related laws. Here is a sampling of new laws scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, or soon after.

Use objective reasons to justify terminations

12/02/2024
Ensure that all terminations are based on solid business reasons. And be sure to carefully document why you decided to terminate, even if you don’t share the rationale with the employee.

The PWFA litigation flood has arrived

11/13/2024
The EEOC has filed the first round of its Pregnant Workers Fairness Act lawsuits alleging interference with the legislation that requires employers to reasonably accommodate conditions related to pregnancy. If you haven’t yet read the regulations and changed your policies and practices to conform to the rules, there’s no time to lose.

“Why would you want to do a man’s job?”

11/13/2024
That’s one of the sexist questions the EEOC alleges Waste Industries—a solid waste removal, recycling and landfill service provider—repeatedly asked female job applicants. As a result, the company agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle the agency’s pattern-or-practice sex-discrimination claim.

Ensure undesirable tasks aren’t assigned only to minorities

11/13/2024
Eleven Black employees of Peoples Gas of Chicago filed a lawsuit alleging they were victims of race discrimination when they were assigned to more dangerous neighborhoods.

Call a halt to ‘dead-naming’ of transgender employees

11/13/2024
Employers are responsible for stopping gender-based harassment. Remind supervisors that harassing transgender workers is a serious offense.

OK to place reasonable limits on religious accommodations

11/13/2024
Employers must reasonably accommodate employees’ religious needs, but there are limits.

Religious accommodation request? Here’s what not to ask

11/13/2024
After the Supreme Court’s Groff v. DeJoy religious-accommodation case that strictly limited when employers can turn down requests, some employers demanded details about professed religious beliefs and documentation that the request was based on their religion’s requirement. But that is backfiring as courts set strict standards on how much information employers can demand.

Making even a few ageist statements can land you in court

11/13/2024
Here’s a reminder that HR needs to train supervisors and managers on ageist attitudes and comments. Even one or two isolated comments that could be viewed as criticism based on an employee’s age can be enough to justify an Age Discrimination in Employment Act lawsuit if there are other indications of favoring the young.