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Employment Law

Mothers and other caregivers get EEOC protection

07/01/2007

The EEOC just issued guidelines stating that one’s status as a family member can’t be considered in employment decisions. The agency says the guidelines address “family-responsibility discrimination.” They draw on earlier theories about so-called “gender-plus” discrimination …

Appraisal must be tied to adverse action to be retaliation

07/01/2007

Supervisors often feel as if they are walking on eggshells after an employee has filed a discrimination complaint. After all, just about anything they do after a complaint has been filed could be seen as retaliation. If supervisors ask what to do, tell them this: Treat the employee as you would any other …

Some computer jobs exempt from EPA/FLSA protection

07/01/2007

Because of a quirk in the way the Equal Pay Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act have been amended over the years, female workers classified as exempt computer professionals under the FLSA can’t sue their employers for EPA violations …

Document accommodation delays beyond your control

07/01/2007

The ADA requires employers to try to accommodate disabilities so workers can perform the essential functions of their jobs. Accommodation can include special equipment. But employers must not delay the accommodations process. If it takes too long to get the equipment a disabled employee needs, employers may be liable …

Be prepared to explain each promotion decision

07/01/2007

One of the most important factors in promotion discrimination cases is also one of the easiest to control. The courts may not care that your decisions on whom to promote were perfectly rational; they want proof that you used the same factors for each candidate, flawed or not …

When same manager hires and fires, it’s unlikely to be discrimination

07/01/2007

The New York Human Rights Law, like Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, makes it illegal to fire an employee because of his or her race. Both laws also recognize that it’s unlikely that a manager who is aware of an employee’s race when hiring would turn around and fire the same employee because of race …

Lockheed Martin liable under federal law for engineer’s drowning

07/01/2007

The widow of a Lockheed Martin test engineer who drowned in Cayuga Lake when he fell from a company barge settled a lawsuit against the company for an undisclosed amount. The widow sued under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act …

Nursing home to pay $900,000 in language-Based discrimination case

07/01/2007

Flushing Manor Geriatric Center Inc. in Queens will pay $900,000 to 29 Haitian and Jamaican employees for race discrimination and retaliation …

Construction firms not responsible for guard’s asphyxiation death

07/01/2007

A federal district court has ruled that Tom Allen Construction Company and general contractor Mears Group are not responsible for the death of a security guard at a Hunts Point construction site …

The shock jock heard ‘Round the world—And in NYPD, too

07/01/2007

It’s been called the “Imus virus”—people across the country repeating the infamous last words of radio shock jock Don Imus, always with equally dismal results. In Brooklyn, three female police officers filed a federal lawsuit against the New York City Police Department after a sergeant rallied them during roll call with “Stand up, hos.” …