Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Taylor Chapman In many situations, it is relatively easy to understand what constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex. For instance, you cannot refuse to hire an applicant because she is a woman or treat a female employee differently from a male employee because of her sex. The legal requirements become more uncertain, however, […]
by Sophie E. Zdatny House Bill 99, titled “an act relating to equal pay,” has cleared both chambers of the Vermont Legislature and is set to be signed into law by Governor Peter Shumlin on Tuesday, May 14. The final bill amends Vermont’s Fair Employment Practices Act to provide that an employer may pay different […]
by Mark I. Schickman People often complain that California employment law is bizarre. My colleagues around the country call our judges “fruits and nuts.” To the contrary, however, while our legislature is farther left than most states’ legislatures and our juries are more profligate than most, our appellate courts are relatively centrist. The award for […]
by Rich Voelbel Work-life balance is a reality that most employers have come to accept. Employees have children, and occasionally, they need to take days off to care for them when they are sick. While managers may not always like the fact that their employees have to miss work, as the case below demonstrates, it’s […]
by Cynthia Ozger-Pascu The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is continuing its aggressive pursuit of sexual harassment and discrimination claims through systemic enforcement actions. EEOC settles long-standing sexual harassment suit On January 9, the EEOC announced a $2.5 million settlement with Burger King Corporation regarding sexual harassment allegations on behalf of 89 female employees. The […]
by Amanda Jones Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandates that after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has investigated a charge of discrimination and determined there’s reasonable cause to believe the claim is true, it must try to negotiate a settlement with the employer through a conciliation process before filing a […]
By Donna Eich Brooks The headline of this article was worded very specifically. You may have seen write-ups on a recent opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (the federal appeals court for Alabama, Florida, and Georgia) that announced some seismic shift in the law like “Transgendered persons protected from discrimination” […]
Gender identity disorder is a medically recognized condition in which a person’s gender identity doesn’t match his genetic sex. In some cases, the recommended standard of care is counseling and sex reassignment therapy, which includes representing yourself as the gender corresponding to your identity, hormone replacement therapy, and, eventually, gender reassignment surgery. Although federal law […]
by Brad Williams, Holland & Hart LLP The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dukes v. Wal-Mart decision is enormously consequential for employers, particularly those facing “bet-the-company” class actions involving allegations of widespread discrimination. In essence, the Court answered a number of outstanding procedural and interpretive questions involving the federal class-action device in such a way as to […]
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, in a massive lawsuit that has been called the largest employment class action in U.S. history. The class of plaintiffs in Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes included approximately 1.5 million former and current female Wal-Mart employees seeking injunctive, declaratory, and monetary […]