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Discrimination / Harassment

Diversity initiatives: Make sure your good intentions are lawful

11/28/2018
While the Supreme Court has never overturned an employer’s voluntary affirmative action policy, lower courts have struck down such policies when they have strayed beyond Title VII and trammeled upon the rights of male and nonminority employees.

Union has no independent duty to investigate harassment

11/28/2018
A worker who sued both her employer and her union over alleged sexual harassment doesn’t have a separate action against the union over allegations it didn’t independently investigate her claim.

Religion: Extended leave may be undue hardship

11/28/2018
Employers must reasonably accommodate employees’ religious practices, as long as it does not cause an undue hardship.

Track every harassment complaint, document your efforts to address the problem

11/28/2018
Employers that create a complaint system for reporting harassment and follow through on those complaints with appropriate action earn a defense to most harassment claims.

Sued for bias? Prepare to turn over discipline records

11/21/2018
When an employee alleges that discrimination caused him to be punished more severely than other workers outside his protected class, his lawyer will probably demand disciplinary records relating to other workers. Be prepared to hand over those records.

EEOC touts #MeToo year of accomplishments

11/20/2018
The EEOC began fiscal year 2018 last fall, just as the #MeToo movement began calling out workplace sexual harassment. It marked the start of a productive year for the commission.

Facebook, Google end harassment-arbitration rules

11/19/2018
Under pressure from employees, a pair of tech giants—Facebook and Google—revised their policies last month to make private arbitration a choice (rather than a requirement) in employee sexual harassment claims.

Employment law update: Harassment training, Labor Class protections

11/14/2018
Final statewide sexual harassment policy and training guidelines have finally been issued in New York, and the rules differ significantly in several important ways. Plus, more civil service employees now have job protection.

Special oversight OK for disabled employees who telecommute

11/14/2018
It’s OK to set slightly different conditions for two kinds of telecommuters, such as requiring tighter monitoring for disabled workers.

Beat bias lawsuits by showing you enforce attendance rules fairly and impartially

11/14/2018
Courts like to see employers use fair, business-related reasons for discipline. A neutral no-fault attendance policy, applied evenhandedly to all workers in the same job classification, is very likely to stand up in court.