Discrimination / Harassment

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.

Court vacates transgender-related portions of EEOC anti-harassment guidance

05/27/2025

Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction that said the EEOC exceeded its authority in 2024.

The latest cost of failing to accommodate employee’s religion: $13 million

05/27/2025

The Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy made it much harder for employers to justify denying an employee’s request for religious accommodations. Since then, most refusal-to-vaccinate lawsuits have been settled in favor of employees.

Understand the difference between legal and illegal DEI

05/15/2025

Quotas and preferences based on protected characteristics are unlawful. But what if you want to improve representation of marginalized groups in your workplace, and do it legally? Thankfully, the EEOC has long offered guidance.

Offer health benefits to all, regardless of age

05/12/2025

Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, it’s illegal to offer different benefits to workers ages 40 and older than you offer to younger employees. That’s true even if it costs you more to provide the same benefits to older workers.

Be better! Anti-harassment training, half-hearted investigations aren’t enough

05/02/2025

Why aren’t anti-harassment policies more effective at preventing harassment? The answer may lie in ineffective training and the failure of employers to follow their own policies.

Executive order directs EEOC, other agencies to ‘deprioritize’ disparate-impact discrimination

04/28/2025

The order, issued April 23 and titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” contends that the threat of being sued for disparate-impact discrimination prevents employers from hiring the best-qualified candidates, promoting successful employees and generally running their businesses as they see fit.

Discipline consistently to avoid reverse-discrimination lawsuits

04/25/2025

There’s a simple way to avoid many kinds of reverse-discrimination lawsuits: Treat everyone alike. That means making sure supervisors apply work rules impartially and without exception unless there is an objective reason discipline should differ.