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Discrimination / Harassment

Transgender football player wins $20,000 for bias

03/13/2019
For the first time a transgender person has won an employment discrimination award under the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

Audit training to identify possible discrimination

03/13/2019
Make sure your training programs don’t discriminate, especially if promotions and pay raises depend on training.

$4.2 million firing: Back pay, pain & suffering, punitive damages—and then front pay, too

03/13/2019
Unfairly terminating a worker could spark a lawsuit that costs your organization millions of dollars.

Supreme Court hands win to injured workers

03/13/2019
The Minnesota Supreme Court has overturned a 30-year-old decision that prevented injured workers from receiving workers’ compensation benefits and also suing their employers for discrimination.

Missed EEOC deadline doesn’t rule out lawsuit

03/12/2019
If you haven’t heard from a former employee by the time the EEOC’s 180-day deadline for filing a complaint passes, you can probably safely assume the termination won’t turn into a discrimination lawsuit. However, there is one way a former employee can revive her chance to sue.

Sexual innuendo can be sex discrimination

03/07/2019
Here’s a new worry, courtesy of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals: Allowing—or worse yet participating in—rumors that a female employee is allegedly “sleeping with the boss” to get ahead may trigger a sex discrimination lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Staffer’s assault claims cost Jackson Lee two House posts

03/06/2019
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has agreed to step down from two positions in the U.S. House of Representatives after a former Capitol Hill staffer filed a lawsuit alleging she had been fired for reporting she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker.

Lawsuit: No place to express breast milk at KFC

03/06/2019
A Texas company that owns Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in Delaware faces a sex discrimination lawsuit charging that it denied an employee the opportunity to pump breast milk.

Is that hate speech … or merely offensive?

03/06/2019
When it comes to offensive speech at work, context matters. Simply put, some terms have a history as expressions of racial hatred and bigotry. Therefore, they’re always inappropriate. However, other terms are not so fraught with hatred; they are just offensive.

Need to lay off older employee? You can do so without violating age discrimination laws

03/06/2019
Eliminating an older worker’s job doesn’t necessarily mean you are committing age discrimination—as long as you don’t replace the worker with someone substantially younger.