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Discrimination / Harassment

Court: Simply offering DEI program doesn’t establish hostile environment

04/18/2025
The mere existence of a DEI program doesn’t establish a hostile environment if an employee wasn’t singled out or personally affected.

Racial remarks? Respond quickly and forcefully

04/09/2025
As a manager, it’s your responsibility to ensure that none of your people behave in a way that diminishes the sense of mutual respect and dignity in your unit. That’s what insensitive racial remarks do.

EEOC data show rise in claims alleging neurodiversity discrimination

04/07/2025
While still a small subset of EEOC disability discrimination cases, resolution of claims related to autism more than doubled between 2016 and 2023, rising from 0.4% of 1.5% disability bias cases.

Recognize legal peril of automatically rejecting requests for religious accommodation

04/04/2025
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Groff v. DeJoy, employees and their lawyers have been testing the limits on how far employers must go to accommodate religious beliefs and practices.

Litigation alternatives: While the EEOC is dropping bias cases, other advocates are stepping in

04/04/2025
While the EEOC may not want to move ahead with cases it already filed on behalf of transgender employees, that does not mean employers are free to discriminate based on gender identity. There are still multiple avenues that employees can use to sue over the issue.

Recognize the bright line between harassment and run-of-the-mill personality clashes

03/31/2025
Employees don’t always get along—and you can’t force them to actually like each other. Take solace in the fact that unless workplace animosity creates a truly hostile environment, allegations of discrimination or harassment won’t succeed in court unless an employee can prove that a co-worker targeted him because of protected characteristics such as race, gender, religion or national origin.

Clear violation of your rules? Courts won’t second-guess disciplinary decision

03/28/2025
You have workplace rules for a reason, and you can require employees to follow them. If someone breaks your rules or violates your policies, feel free to discipline them. As long as you enforce your rules evenhandedly and impose discipline consistently, courts are unlikely to second-guess your decision to punish employees.

Review outsourced training to ensure it’s free of risky content

03/28/2025
As an HR professional, you know you must provide anti-harassment training. Otherwise, your employer faces potentially costly liability, because one of the key defenses against harassment lawsuits is the ability to prove you took reasonable steps to prevent harassment and put an end to it if it does occur.

How to prevent family caregiver bias claims

03/28/2025
While family caregiver discrimination is not a new protected category (and no federal law expressly prohibits employment discrimination against caregivers), the FMLA and the ADA specifically protect employees with caregiving responsibilities.

Gender pay gap narrows to 85%

03/24/2025
The pay gap between women and men is shrinking—slightly—according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Research Center.