Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

In August, Lone Star Ambulance, a critical-care transportation company in San Antonio, settled a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation. The company will pay $90,000 in damages and provide additional relief. “The EEOC is committed to vigorously enforcing anti-discrimination laws on behalf of all workers,”…

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Requiring Proof of Vaccination? What You Need to Know

In connection with the recent surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant, many businesses have begun to require that employees—and sometimes contractors, volunteers and patrons—provide proof of vaccination. This may come in the form of requests for voluntary disclosure, or in connection with employer vaccine policies, or pursuant to newly issued mandates from…

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Motorcycle Dealership Sales Manager Wins $500K in Sex Discrimination Suit

Backed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a female sales manager at a Harley-Davidson dealership based in Tampa, Florida, won $500,000 in punitive damages after being denied a promotion based on her sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A jury of eight unanimously found in her favor. According to…

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Walmart Applicant Alleges Retailer’s Criminal History Test is Discriminatory

Walmart’s criminal history screening process is overly broad, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an applicant alleged in a proposed class-action lawsuit (Ramos v. Walmart, Inc., No. 21-cv-13827 (D.C.N.J., July 19, 2021)). The store fails to assess whether an applicant’s convictions are job-related, the plaintiff said. Furthermore, Walmart’s process…

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Employees Working from Home – How Should Company’s React?

With the country reopening due to the lessening of COVID-related restrictions, companies and employees are returning to a new “normal.” Remote working has become a recruiting tool for some companies. For other companies which have required employees to return to the office, the failure to continue to allow some form of remote working (“hybrid model”)…

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Court Revives Title VII and FMLA Claims

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived race discrimination and retaliation claims of a Black sheriff’s office employee fired for sleeping on the job based on evidence that the office only counseled a white employee for the same behavior. The plaintiff was a shift supervisor in the dispatch department of the St. John the…

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Employers Paid $439M to Resolve EEOC Discrimination Claims in 2020

Employers paid more than $439 million to resolve U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination allegations. That number includes both private sector and state and local government workplaces during the agency’s 2020 fiscal year, according to a Feb. 26 statement. Retaliation claims constituted more than half of all charges filed with the agency last year, while disability-related claims and…

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Under the Biden Administration, Turbulence Awaits Employers at the NLRB

President Joe Biden wasted little time in making his mark on the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “the Board”) – a development of import to all employers, as the law it enforces, the National Labor Relations Act, protects the rights of all employees, not just union members, to engage in concerted activity regarding the…

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