Discrimination

  • August 28, 2024

    8th Circ. Revives FMLA Interference Claim Against Pork Co.

    An Iowa federal judge correctly tossed a mechanic's claim that a pork processing plant discriminated against him for taking Family and Medical Leave Act leave by firing him, the Eighth Circuit said Wednesday, but it said the judge should have preserved a claim that the discharge constituted FMLA interference.

  • August 28, 2024

    SC Hospital Asks 4th Circ. To Reconsider Arbitration Denial

    A South Carolina hospital urged the Fourth Circuit to reconsider blocking arbitration in a job applicant's suit alleging she was screened out based on a discriminatory physical agility test, arguing an appeals panel overlooked key details when concluding the application portal was unclear about the arbitration pact.

  • August 27, 2024

    Walmart Has To Face EEOC Again After Losing Bias Trial

    The Seventh Circuit gave the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission another chance Tuesday to force Walmart to boost its disability accommodation training after a jury found it intentionally discriminated against an employee with Down syndrome, and affirmed what was originally a $125 million jury verdict later reduced to $419,000.

  • August 27, 2024

    X Wins Dismissal of Former Workers' Sex Bias Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge agreed to throw out former X Corp. workers' suit claiming Elon Musk's takeover of the company formerly named Twitter caused women to lose their jobs, but the judge gave the workers another opportunity to amend their claims.

  • August 27, 2024

    Insurer Off The Hook For $1.8M Praying Coach Settlement

    A Washington state school district's insurer doesn't have to cover a nearly $1.8 million legal fee settlement the district reached with a high school football coach whom the U.S. Supreme Court found was wrongly suspended for praying on the 50-yard line after games, a state appeals court ruled.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Job Reassignment Case Shows Need For Clear ADA Policies

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent holding in U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Methodist Hospitals that a disabled employee was not entitled to a job reassignment as a reasonable accommodation underscores the importance of implementing detailed Americans with Disabilities Act policies and educating employees on them, says Marcellus Chamberlain at Phelps Dunbar.

  • 10 Ways NYC AI Discrimination Rules May Affect Employers

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    Continuing the most comprehensive effort to regulate employers' use of artificial intelligence technology in the United States, New York City's recent rules to implement Local Law 144 make a number of noteworthy changes that may restrict companies from using automated employment decision tools, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • AI For Advancing Diversity In The Workplace: Friend Or Foe?

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    In the wake of calls for increased workplace diversity, employers are turning to artificial intelligence to automate hiring and cut costs to reach environmental, social and governance objectives, but this technology requires human oversight to minimize biases and discrimination, say Consuela Pinto and Dawn Siler-Nixon at FordHarrison.

  • Handbook Hot Topics: Attendance Policies

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    Employee attendance problems are among the most common reasons for disciplinary action and discharge, which is why a clear policy neatly laid out in an employee handbook is necessary to articulate expectations for workers and support an employer's position should any attendance-related disputes arise, says Kara Shea at Butler Snow.

  • What Employers Should Know About Proposed Calif. AI Regs

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    Recently proposed California regulations aim to hold employers and agencies liable for disparate treatment arising from automated-decision systems, and there are five things employers should look out for, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Beware The Legal Risks Of Personality Tests In Hiring

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    The rise of remote work has led employers to increasingly use personality tests to evaluate candidates, but hiring teams must exercise caution to avoid liability, as such tests may be discriminatory, or in violation of certain civil rights, state or local laws, says Daniel Schwartz at Shipman & Goodwin.

  • New Ruling Shows Benefits Of HR-Only Harassment Policies

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    By recently ruling that Penguin Random House did not unlawfully retaliate by demoting a supervisor who failed to promptly report sexual harassment allegations to human resources, the Seventh Circuit provides welcome support to companies that want managers to go straight to HR instead of investigating employee complaints on their own, says Robin Shea at Constangy Brooks.

  • Reproductive Rights Ruling May Thwart Employee Protections

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Slattery v. Hochul — greenlighting an anti-abortion group's case against a New York law prohibiting employee discrimination related to reproductive choices — could mean trouble for certain worker statutory protections, say Grayson Moronta and Courtney Stieber at Seyfarth.

  • Calif. FCRA Ruling Boosts Technical Claim Defense

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    The California Supreme Court's recent decision to let a state appeals court's Limon v. Circle K Store opinion stand will bolster Fair Credit Reporting Act defendants' ability to assert lack of standing against technical claims in cases where plaintiffs haven't suffered concrete harm, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Water Cooler Talk: Quiet Quitting Insights From 'Seinfeld'

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    Tracey Diamond and Evan Gibbs at Troutman Pepper chat with Paradies Lagardere's Rebecca Silk about George Costanza's "quiet quitting" tendencies in "Seinfeld" and how such employees raise thorny productivity-monitoring issues for employers.

  • What The 3rd McD's Ruling Means For Claims Against Officers

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    The Delaware Chancery Court's third decision in the McDonald's stockholder litigation related to sexual harassment at the company indicates that plaintiff stockholders bringing Caremark claims against officers are not likely to be successful if the board acted properly, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Pros And Cons As Calif. Employers Rethink Forced Arbitration

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    As California employers reconsider mandatory arbitration pacts following favorable high-profile federal and state court rulings, they should contemplate the benefits and burdens of such agreements, and fine-tune contract language to ensure continued enforcement, say Niki Lubrano and Brian Cole at CDF Labor Law.

  • Eye On Compliance: Cross-State Noncompete Agreements

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent proposal to limit the application of worker noncompete agreements is a timely reminder for prudent employers to reexamine their current policies and practices around such covenants — especially businesses with operational footprints spanning more than one state, says Jeremy Stephenson at Wilson Elser.