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Discrimination / Harassment

Downsizing DEI? RIFs may backfire

06/12/2025
It may be tempting to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies entirely. But before you do so, consider the potential unintended consequences, especially if you lay off everyone you hired to run the programs. Those sidelined employees who were supposed to help you create a diverse workplace may sue you.

Teen harassment? Avoid a PR nightmare

06/12/2025
Teens can ask a question and get an instant (sometimes inaccurate) answer. Couple that with government websites designed to provide teens with accurate information about their rights, and you have a recipe for a PR nightmare.

Proposed legislation seeks to level the playing field for age-bias claims

06/09/2025
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to change the legal standards older employees must meet to bring forward age-discrimination claims.

Disparate-impact discrimination about-face doesn’t mean it’s gone

06/09/2025
Disparate-impact discrimination is a legal theory that holds that an entity may be discriminating unlawfully even though it has neutral rules if those rules have a disparate impact on a protected class. It is unintentional discrimination.

EEOC claims employers don’t need to follow their guidance

06/09/2025
According to the EEOC, agency guidance does not have the force of law.

Supreme Court rules on reverse discrimination

06/09/2025
In a unanimous decision written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees claiming they have been the victim of reverse discrimination don’t have additional hoops to jump through before getting their day in court.

EEOC revises harassment guidance following court order

06/02/2025
The EEOC has highlighted the sections of its guidance it now will not enforce. These include numerous examples such as misgendering, outing someone’s gender identity, denying access to a bathroom consistent with the person’s gender identity and using epithets regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

Provide training, monitor workplace to stop harassment

06/02/2025
Not only are sectors such as retail, construction and food service more likely to be hostile environments, but the managers you rely on to stop ongoing harassment may be engaging in the harassment themselves.

Co-worker discomfort is no excuse for transgender discrimination

05/30/2025
Sometimes, our differences may clash in ways that seem impossible to reconcile. It’s hard to make everyone happy. That doesn’t absolve employers from the obligation to try.

DEI, immigration, LGBTQ+ protections top list of pressing HR concerns

05/30/2025
Earlier this year, the Littler Mendelson law firm surveyed 350 in-house lawyers, business executives and HR professionals and asked them what their greatest concerns were for managing employees this year. Here are their top three.