By Howard Mavity
When Jordan Barab famously admitted that OSHA was utilizing large penalties accompanied by harsh press releases to “motivate” employers to comply, I had mixed feelings.
Fear is a great motivator. Aggressive publication of legitimate noteworthy OSHA citations has a role in the “carrot and stick” process of safety enforcement. Moreover, I understand that the former OSHA Region IV Administrator first used the phrase, and frankly, I doubt that she misused the approach. Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
An EEOC complaint is not your free pass to goof off at work.
Or sexually harass your co-workers.
Gary Vaughn found out the hard way.
After he filed a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he spent the next two years sexually harassing a female co-worker — to the point whether she took out a restraining order against him and filed her own Charge of Discrimination in which she alleged that Mr. Vaughn had sexually harassed her. Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
An employer must accommodate the sincerely-held religious beliefs of its employees unless the employer demonstrates that doing so would cause undue hardship for the business.
Undue hardship?!? What the heck is that? And how can you make sure that your managers are prepared to address — let alone spot — these issues when they arise.
In June 2011, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it had sued a Rent-A-Center store in Washington, D.C. because Rent-A-Center had allegedly violated federal law when it failed to accommodate a store manager’s religious beliefs and then fired him because of his religion. Read more…
By Kristin R. Erenburg
So, the good news is that, with the election over, we’ve gone back to regular TV programming without being bombarded with political ads.
The not-so-good news is that the fallout of the election results will be felt shortly as President Obama prepares to officially begin his second term.
For employers, this means continued and increased scrutiny of workplace policies by the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Many are beginning to perceive these two agencies as agenda watchdogs. Read more…
After reviewing the EEOC’s newly-approved Strategic Enforcement Plan, there are no surprises for employers when it comes to identifying where to concentrate their EEO compliance efforts for the next four years.
But one of the areas the EEOC intends to focus on did come as a surprise: enforcement of equal pay laws.
Why was it a surprise? Enforcement of equal pay laws was added to the strategic plan at the last minute. Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
Same stuff; different year.
In 2010, an Ohio temp agency paid $650,000 as part of a Consent Agreement with the EEOC to settle claims that it had used code words in considering and assigning (or declining) job applicants. The code include words such as “chocolate cupcake” for young African American women, “hockey player” for young white males, “figure skater” for white females, “basketball player” for black males, and “small hands” for women in general.
Fast forward to today … Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
Thus far, you’ve managed to keep your equal-employment-opportunity nose clean.
Good for you. In fact, with the economy the way it is, combined with the dwindling resources available to our federal agencies — including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — your odds of facing a federal investigation based on a complaint of discrimination or harassment are fairly slim.
But…
On Tuesday, the EEOC announced its Strategic Enforcement Plan. And within that plan, you’ll find six areas of EEOC focus over the next four years: Read more…
By Eric B. Meyer
This case is so captivating that, at 35 pages long, it held my attention for 24 of them. Winning!
I’ll whet your whistle with the opening paragraph of EEOC v. The McPherson Cos., Inc.:
This Title VII case revolves around repeated churlish, childish, gross, sordid, vulgar, foul, disgusting, profane utterances in the workplace. The question in the case, however, is not how vile and obnoxious this workplace language was. It was vile and obnoxious enough to score nine on a scale of ten. This will become apparent as the story unfolds. The question for the court is rather whether this verbal mayhem morphed from a competition to see who could beat whom in the foul-mouth game into a cause of action under Title VII by an offended employee for same-sex sexual harassment.” Read more…
In honor of this auspicious occasion, I thought it might be helpful to remind everyone of workplace requirements in place to protect all of our wonderful veterans and those currently serving in the military:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released a new Q&A Fact Sheet on domestic/dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.
What’s it all about?
The document starts by recognizing that no federal EEO law specifically prohibits “discrimination against applicants or employees who experience domestic or dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.” It then provides examples of such situations where Title VII and the ADA “may apply.”
What should employers avoid doing?
The EEOC groups the examples into the following categories. Read more…
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