Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
As we’ve discussed in previous articles, federal courts across the country are struggling with whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on someone’s sexual orientation. An East Tennessee federal district court recently concluded that it doesn’t. In the case before the court, a woman claimed she was fired […]
The federal district court of Minnesota recently heard a case regarding sexual harassment after the breakup of a consensual sexual relationship between an employee and her supervisor. The supervisor allegedly was displeased with the breakup and was unsuccessful in restarting the relationship, and a tense work environment ensued. The court ultimately held that the allegations […]
The Iowa Court of Appeals recently found that an employee who made violent threats on Facebook couldn’t sue her former employer for retaliation after she was terminated. The court’s decision is important because it allows employers to make termination decisions when a protected complaint is pending. In other words, not all opposition is protected.
We all understand that filing a discrimination charge with a government agency is protected activity, but one employee recently claimed that withdrawing such a charge is also protected. Read on to see how the court responded to that novel approach.
What if a manager accused of unlawful discrimination based on employees’ religion asserts that the complaint itself is an act of harassment? You owe duties all around, and you may not be able to perform one duty without risking a violation of the other. See how one employer successfully avoided that minefield.
A federal judge in Shreveport, Louisiana recently allowed a former employee’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) lawsuit alleging interference and retaliation to proceed to trial after he was terminated for an alleged attendance policy violation during his previously approved intermittent leave.
Recently, Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island heard a claim from a female employee who says she was placed on a paid suspension after announcing that she was pregnant.
A federal judge in Aberdeen, Mississippi recently heard an employee’s claims that she was rescheduled to the graveyard shift as a result of discrimination and that she had been subjected to a hostile work environment.
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), federal law required employers with more than 50 employees to provide breastfeeding employees a private location, other than a toilet stall, where they can express breast milk in privacy. And, of course, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) has prohibited discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, […]
A recent opinion from the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals—which covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming—involving Tulsa, Oklahoma’s American Airlines facility is a reminder of the kind of evidence required to establish retaliation.