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Discrimination / Harassment

EEOC updates guidance on hostile work environments

05/30/2024
For the five fiscal years ending with FY 2023, more than one-third of the charges of employment discrimination it received included an allegation of unlawful harassment based on race, sex, disability or another protected characteristic.

EEOC damage awards fell dramatically in FY 2023

05/28/2024
Employers paid $22.6 million in monetary damages for violating federal anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws in fiscal year 2023, according to EEOC statistics released in May.

EEOC charges jump for second straight year

05/28/2024
Employees filed 81,055 discrimination and harassment charges in FY 2023, compared to 73,485 the year before and 61,331 in FY 2021, a year in which EEOC activity lagged because of COVID lockdowns.

No, you can’t use high medical costs as an excuse to terminate a sick worker

05/13/2024
A car dealership is out $325,000 and must train managers and supervisors on the ADA and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Employ low-skill, entry-level workers? Avoid EEOC’s anti-discrimination crosshairs

05/08/2024
“Protecting individuals seeking entry-level or temporary jobs from discrimination” is an EEOC enforcement priority. For employers, that means low-skill, entry-level hiring patterns will be scrutinized for any sign that some applicants aren’t being hired because of their protected class.

Beware the high cost of tolerating a racially hostile environment: $20.5 million

05/08/2024
A former employee has won a huge jury award over allegations that a supervisor and co-worker created a racially hostile work environment that the company failed to fix.

Keep up with EEOC’s new, comprehensive enforcement guidance on harassment

05/06/2024
The EEOC has published a new, comprehensive guidance document that covers what employers must do to avoid liability for workplace harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age and genetic information.

CROWN Act alert: Ensure grooming rules don’t perpetuate hairstyle bias

05/03/2024
One of the fastest-growing legal anti-discrimination trends is an effort to outlaw discrimination on the basis of employees’ hairstyles. So far, efforts to pass a national law have proven unsuccessful. However, that hasn’t stopped the EEOC from pursuing litigation against employers accused of natural hair discrimination, as a recent case shows.

Beware co-worker harassment of transgender employees

04/22/2024
Late last year, the EEOC issued proposed guidance on gender-identity discrimination and harassment, with final guidance due soon. Based on the proposed guidance, we know the EEOC views slights against transgender employees to be a form of sex-based harassment. Now it has filed a lawsuit that claims harassment because co-workers continue to use a transgender employee’s birth name instead of the one she now chooses to call herself.

Supreme Court: ‘Significant’ harm not required to support Title VII lawsuits contesting transfers

04/18/2024
It just became easier for employees to file and win lawsuits alleging that an unwanted job transfer was motivated by discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, even if the transfer did not result in a demotion or loss of pay.