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Discrimination / Harassment

E-mails and messages may come back to haunt managers

12/01/2007

Increasingly, courts hearing discrimination cases order employers to turn over e-mails and text messages. These communications may include correspondence employees may have sent or received from clients and customers. One reason is that federal court rules on electronic discovery now require employers to retain vast amounts of information for use in litigation …

Use rational business reasons to justify RIF choice

12/01/2007

When employees lose their jobs, they naturally wonder why they were chosen. Employees who recently have complained about discrimination—real or imagined—often do more than wonder. They often jump to the conclusion that they have been fired in retaliation for complaining. That conclusion can lead to a lawsuit. Be prepared with solid and rational reasons why you chose the employee who got the ax …

Judge says prison harassment could have been deadly

12/01/2007

A lesbian prison guard has been awarded $850,000 after an administrative judge found that she had endured a “relentless, daily regimen of mental and physical threats” by a co-worker at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden …

Odd workplaces: Trader claims he was forced to take hormones

12/01/2007

The EEOC is investigating a lawsuit by a former junior trader at SAC Capital Partners, headquartered in Stamford, CT, claiming his boss forced him to take female hormones and then sexually assaulted him …

$4.3 million to settle Hispanic workers’ discrimination suit

12/01/2007

B & H Foto and Electronics Corp., the enormous 9th Avenue photo mecca in Manhattan, will pay $4.3 million to settle a race discrimination lawsuit by the EEOC. The lawsuit alleged B & H paid Hispanic warehouse workers less than others …

Morgan Stanley out $46 million to top female advisors

12/01/2007

A federal judge has approved a settlement by Wall Street financial services firm Morgan Stanley to end a sex discrimination suit. A class of 3,000 current and former female employees of the firm will share $46 million …

Unless there’s discipline, it’s not religious discrimination

12/01/2007

Employees whose employers turn down requests for time off to attend religious services can’t just run out and sue for religious discrimination. They have a case only if their employers discipline or discharge them for refusing to comply with the work requirements—for example, by skipping work to attend services …

ELCRA lets employees go back only 3 years to show hostile work environment

12/01/2007

Sometimes, employees who finally come forward and allege they worked in hostile work environments will reach back years—even decades—to catalog the harassment they claim they experienced. The sheer weight of the list may unfairly sway juries. But fortunately for Michigan employers, there is no continuing-violation claim available under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act …

Club manager, golf pro resign in wake of harassment suit

12/01/2007

The general manager resigned and the head golf pro was fired at Egypt Valley Country Club in Ada after a former assistant golf pro filed a $100,000 lawsuit over sexual bullying …

Don’t retaliate against harassment victim who calls police

12/01/2007

Here’s a risk you may not have considered: Ignoring a sexual harassment complaint may prompt the alleged victim to get help from outside law enforcement agencies. React inappropriately and you’re likely to have a retaliation suit on your hands …