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Discrimination / Harassment

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.

Supreme Court hints it will set one standard for reverse-discrimination cases

03/21/2025
Ames v. Ohio is a reverse-discrimination case—one in which a member of a majority group claims that they were discriminated against because the employer favored a member of a minority group. What the Supreme Court will decide is whether majority group members must overcome additional obstacles before taking their discrimination cases to trial.

Executive order takes aim at law firm, targets DEI activities in legal industry

03/17/2025
The order ostensibly targets the firm’s hiring and promotion policies, which it characterizes as “blatant race-based and sex-based discrimination.”

$1.4 million EEOC settlement over national origin

03/13/2025
Employers can’t discriminate against applicants based on their national origin—including Americans. That’s the reminder from an EEOC settlement.

Beware new class-action threat targeting smoker surcharges

03/10/2025
Employees claim Whole Foods’ benefits plan violates ERISA because plan administrators aren’t acting in the smoking employees’ best interests when they refuse to refund surcharges after employees quit using tobacco products.

Pay-equity audit? Be prepared to show your work

03/07/2025
To avoid litigation, many employers conduct internal audits to ensure pay equity when employees perform substantially identical work. If you decide to run a pay-equity audit, be prepared to show exactly how you conducted it.

Review development programs to ensure inclusion

03/07/2025
To protect against reverse-discrimination charges, thoroughly review all your training and development opportunities to ensure they don’t violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other anti-discrimination laws. Here’s what to look for when you review your development programs.