Avoiding Gender Discrimination: Train Your Team on Using Correct Pronouns
Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibit discrimination based on gender identity (as part of its prohibition on gender discrimination)?
Tag: Supreme Court
Series of ERISA Retirement Benefit Cases Head to Supreme Court Docket
Three lawsuits against corporate retirement benefit plans involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) have been, and a fourth may be, granted certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court for its next term, a relatively large concentration of these cases in the High Court’s recent history of hearing ERISA matters.
Supreme Court Poised to Make Its Mark On Employment Law
Halfway through the current administration, it’s unlikely there will be much significant employment legislation passed between now and the next election. With the Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, it doesn’t really matter what laws the president proposes and the Senate passes. There won’t be any consensus on major legislative policy initiatives.
What is Arbitration?
In a previous post, we discussed Google’s recent decision to end forced arbitration for all disputes involving current and future employees, except for disputes that have already been settled. This followed a change late last year that removed the requirement for cases alleging sexual harassment and assault.
What HR Needs to Know About Working with Labor Unions
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that participation in labor unions was down in 2016, especially in the private sector. And the cause for this is due to the ever-increasing responsiveness of human resource (HR) professionals and the positive employee relations they inspire in the […]
Avoiding Candidates with ‘Too Much Experience’ Could Land Employers in Hot Water
A 58-year-old attorney had too much experience to seek an in-house legal position with a healthcare products company. In a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit—which covers Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin—decision, the court considered whether the “disparate impact” provision of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) covers job applicants or only current […]
Supreme Court Rejects Narrow Interpretation of FLSA in Overtime Case
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in a case directly affecting employers of auto service advisers is expected to have implications for employers of other kinds of workers as well since the Court rejected the notion that exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must be construed narrowly.
Record Number of Companies Earn Perfect Score from Human Rights Campaign
A record number of the nation’s major companies and law firms are advancing policies and practices to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) workers around the world, according to the 2018 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.
Training to Prevent Sexual Harassment Suits
A substitute school custodian said she was pressured to have sex with a foreman in exchange for more hours and then retaliated against for refusing his advances and lodging a sexual harassment complaint. This case demonstrates the importance of training employees and supervisors on sexual harassment prevention and on protocols for reporting harassment.
Do Your Holiday Decorations Suggest Religious Preference?
It’s nearing the time of year when workplaces become more festive. Perhaps your office plans to decorate a Christmas tree, as it does every year. Maybe all your employees celebrate Christmas, so it has never occurred to you that you may, inadvertently, be sending a message about your workplace to others, including job candidates.