Discrimination

  • August 27, 2024

    Plumbing Co. To Pay $1.6M To Settle EEOC Harassment Suit

    A plumbing and HVAC contractor has agreed to pay the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission $1.6 million to end a Florida federal suit claiming it created a racially hostile work environment by allowing the regular use of racial slurs and display of confederate flags.

  • August 27, 2024

    White Ex-Coach Asks 11th Circ. To Rethink Bias Suit Ruling

    A white former football coach has asked the Eleventh Circuit to rethink its choice not to reopen his case alleging that a Georgia school district unlawfully refused to renew his contract because he's white, arguing that the decision deprives him of his right to have his day in court.

  • August 27, 2024

    Teacher Sues Ga. School Over Ouster During Medical Absence

    A math teacher and state champion wrestling coach at a private school in Atlanta has claimed he was unlawfully forced out of a job after a hospitalization for a kidney infection, with one school official telling him to resign or be fired.

  • August 27, 2024

    Wells Fargo Seeks To Scrap Ex-Worker's $22M ADA Verdict

    Wells Fargo urged a North Carolina federal court to upend a jury's $22.1 million verdict in favor of a former investment director who alleged he was laid off so the company wouldn't have to accommodate his paralyzed colon and bladder, arguing the evidence presented doesn't support jurors' conclusions.

  • August 27, 2024

    Illinois Pushes Boundaries With Strong Caregiver Bias Law

    A newly signed Illinois law barring workplace discrimination against caregivers is a robust addition to the growing stack of state measures shielding workers with familial responsibilities from uneven treatment, experts say.

  • August 27, 2024

    Car Insurer Defeats Ex-Workers' Age Bias, Benefits Claims

    Two former employees of a Montgomery, Alabama, car insurance company didn't prove they lost their jobs because they were a few years away from retiring, an Alabama federal judge ruled, tossing the age discrimination and benefits lawsuit they filed after they were laid off.

  • August 27, 2024

    Reed Smith Calls Ex-Atty's Bid For Pay Data 'Frivolous'

    Reed Smith LLP has urged a New Jersey state court judge to reject a bid by a former attorney suing the firm for gender discrimination to obtain pay data going back nearly 20 years, arguing there is no legal basis to support expanding the scope of discovery.

  • August 27, 2024

    Croke Fairchild Adds Smith Gambrell Employment Partner

    Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC, one of the country's largest women-owned law firms, has added an employment attorney from Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP as a partner.

  • August 27, 2024

    Ex-Teacher Says District Forced Her To Resign Over COVID

    A former Fulton County School District teacher sued the district in Georgia federal court Monday, alleging she was denied reasonable accommodations and forced to resign from her job after contracting COVID-19 in 2020.

  • August 27, 2024

    6th Circ. Upholds Diver's Sex Harassment Verdict

    The Sixth Circuit backed a jury's verdict in favor of a commercial diver who accused an environmental cleanup company of subjecting her to weeks of belittlement and harassment, finding she'd presented sufficient evidence demonstrating that supervisors and colleagues ostracized her because of her gender.

  • August 27, 2024

    11th Circ. Allows Fla. Law Banning Trans Care To Take Effect

    The Eleventh Circuit has said a Florida law can take effect that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restricts it for adults, granting the state's bid to scrap an injunction barring the law while it appeals a lower court ruling that found the statute unconstitutional.

  • August 27, 2024

    Morgan Stanley Applicant Drops Suit After Pseudonym Order

    A Massachusetts woman on Tuesday dropped her proposed class action claiming Morgan Stanley illegally used protected criminal history information to discriminate against applicants, after a federal judge ruled she couldn't advance the lawsuit under a pseudonym.

  • August 27, 2024

    Vt. High Court Affirms Denial Of Benefits To Marijuana Patient

    The Vermont Supreme Court has affirmed an administrative law judge's decision not to issue a declaratory ruling whether off-duty medical cannabis use counts as misconduct for the purposes of terminating and denying benefits to a former transportation company employee.

  • August 26, 2024

    5 Mistakes Employers Make When Placing Workers On PIPs

    Although performance improvement plans can be a valuable tool for companies to steer underperforming workers back on track, the process of placing employees on PIPs can be filled with missteps that can make such remedial efforts a breeding ground for bias or retaliation claims, experts say. Here, employer-side attorneys look at five PIP-related mistakes employers make that can land them in legal hot water.

  • August 26, 2024

    5th Circ. Won't Revive Texas Teacher's Age Bias Suit

    The Fifth Circuit backed the dismissal of a teacher's suit claiming he was pulled from his teaching job and placed into a support role because of his older age, saying Monday he failed to show that discrimination drove the Texas school district's decision rather than his poor performance.

  • August 26, 2024

    Fired Catholic Chaplain Revamps Wesleyan U. Bias Suit

    Wesleyan University denied funding for a Catholic ski trip, hosted a group of sacrilegious mock nuns and ultimately fired a Catholic chaplain who complained that a Muslim colleague was unfairly terminated, according to an amended complaint in Connecticut federal court.

  • August 26, 2024

    Uber Arbitration Agreement Can't Block Bias Investigation

    Uber Technologies Inc. can't use an arbitration provision in an employment agreement to block a Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission investigation into one of its driver's claims that the company discriminated against him, a Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled.

  • August 26, 2024

    Alaska Airlines Inks $4.75M Deal To End Military Leave Suit

    Alaska Airlines Inc. and Horizon Air Industries Inc. will pay $4.75 million to resolve a class action alleging it shortchanged pilots who took short-term military leave while allowing others to claim pay for jury duty or bereavement leave, a policy the service members called biased.

  • August 26, 2024

    Disney Seeks 9th Circ. Appeal In 'Star Wars' Actor's Firing Suit

    Disney and Lucasfilm want the Ninth Circuit to weigh whether the First Amendment protects an artistic organization's right to control casting decisions, urging a California federal court to let it immediately appeal an order that allowed a former Star Wars actor's political bias lawsuit to move forward.

  • August 26, 2024

    Globetrotters Parent Co. Shouldn't Duck Bias Suit, Judge Says

    The Harlem Globetrotters' parent company and its media arm shouldn't be able to escape a player's suit alleging she was cut from the team after rejecting its general manager's romantic advances, a Georgia federal judge said, rejecting the entities' arguments that they weren't properly notified about the allegations.

  • August 26, 2024

    New Jersey Cases Attorneys Are Watching In 2024

    Jersey City is fighting the Garden State's cannabis legalization law and argues it conflicts with federal gun control legislation, while the bankrupt former chief financial officer of McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP is facing civil claims he defrauded the firm and paid himself millions in unauthorized salary.

  • August 26, 2024

    GOP Reps Press EEOC Chair About Abandoned Furlough Plan

    Two top Republican lawmakers asked the head of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday to explain the circumstances behind a since-abandoned proposal to furlough agency staff for a day as a cost-saving measure, saying the plan was a signal of "mismanagement." 

  • August 23, 2024

    Northwestern Wants Baseball Retaliation Suit Axed For Good

    Former Northwestern University baseball employees alleging they were fired in retaliation for outing now-fired coach Jim Foster's abusive behavior should be permanently blocked from pursuing those allegations because they have failed to outline sufficient claims despite receiving a second chance to do so, the university has argued.

  • August 23, 2024

    NC Justice Dept. Atty's Promotion Bias Suit Cleared For Trial

    The North Carolina Department of Justice will face an attorney's race and sex discrimination claims at trial after a federal judge rejected the agency's bid for summary judgment, finding that a dispute remains about whether there was a legitimate reason for not promoting her.

  • August 23, 2024

    Full 8th Circ. To Review Diabetic Fast-Food Worker's ADA Suit

    The Eighth Circuit will conduct a full court review of a split panel's recent decision to revive a former manager's lawsuit alleging that a Hardee's franchisee fired her because she has diabetes, granting the employer's bid for a rehearing.

Expert Analysis

  • What To Expect From The EEOC's Proposed Pregnancy Law

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    U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act require accommodations for many conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth, and while the final rule won't be published until the public comment period expires in October, employers should act promptly, says Amy Gluck at FisherBroyles.

  • Employer Best Practices For Pay Transparency Compliance

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    With conflicting pay transparency and disclosure laws appearing across the country, employers must carefully develop different strategies for discussing compensation with employees, applicants, and off-site workers, disclosing salaries in job ads, and staying abreast of new state and local compliance requirements, says Joy Rosenquist at Littler Mendelson.

  • Congress Must Level The Employer Arbitration Playing Field

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    Federal courts have largely eviscerated state bans on arbitration of employment claims through Federal Arbitration Act preemption holdings, and they are also limiting the impact of the federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, so Congress needs to step in and amend both laws, says Alan Kabat at Bernabei & Kabat.

  • What 11th Circ. Revival Of Deaf Employee's Bias Suit Portends

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent Beasley v. O'Reilly Auto Parts decision, which created a circuit split involving the issue of linking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act to essential job functions, is a curiosity about the court's analysis at least and a potential game changer for employer duties at most, says John Doran at Sherman & Howard.

  • What To Watch As Justices Take Up Title VII Job Transfer Case

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    With its recent decision to hear Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether an involuntary job transfer can count as employment discrimination under Title VII — an eventual ruling that has potential to reshape workplace bias claims nationwide, says Adam Grogan at Bell Law Group.

  • Parsing EEOC Guidance On Accommodating Low Vision

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    Employers need to examine recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance on provisions for employees who are blind or partially sighted, particularly on the consequences of terminating an employee with blindness or low vision without meeting obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, says Amy Epstein Gluck at FisherBroyles.

  • 5 Tips For Employers Handling Generative AI Privacy Risks

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    Employers should carefully consider the privacy implications of using generative artificial intelligence tools, and employ steps to mitigate the risks, such as de-identifying data, providing notice and identifying data flows, say Zoe Argento and Amy Kabaria at Littler.

  • Water Cooler Talk: 'The Bear' Serves Up Advice For Managers

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    Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs at Troutman Pepper chat with Ernst & Young’s Laura Yehuda about Hulu's "The Bear" and the best practices managers can glean from the show's portrayal of workplace challenges, including those faced by young, female managers.

  • Recalling USWNT's Legal PR Playbook Amid World Cup Bid

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    As the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team strives to take home another World Cup trophy, their 2022 pay equity settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation serves as a good reminder that winning in the court of public opinion can be more powerful than a victory inside the courtroom, says Hector Valle at Vianovo.

  • Mass. Age Bias Ruling Holds Employer Liability Lessons

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    The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s recent ruling in Adams v. Schneider Electric — upholding a laid-off employee’s age discrimination claim — is an important reminder that employers may face liability even if a decision maker unknowingly applies a discriminatory corporate strategy, say attorneys at Armstrong Teasdale.

  • Regulating AI: Litigation Questions And State Efforts To Watch

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    In view of the developing legal and regulatory framework for artificial intelligence systems in the U.S., including state legislation and early federal litigation, there are practical takeaways as we look toward the future, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.

  • Regulating AI: An Overview Of Federal Efforts

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    The U.S. has been carefully managing a national policy and regulatory ecosystem toward artificial intelligence, but as AI technology continues to expand into our everyday lives, so too has its risks and the need for regulation, says Jennifer Maisel at Rothwell Figg.

  • Justices' Job Transfer Review Should Hold To Title VII Text

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis should hold that a job transfer can be an adverse employment action, and the analysis should be based on the straightforward language of Title VII rather than judicial activism, say Lynne Bernabei and Alan Kabat at Bernabei & Kabat.