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Discrimination / Harassment

Are Employee Protests a ‘Protected’ Activity?

06/01/2006

Recent immigration-related rallies have led many employees, mostly minority ones, to skip work on those days. That action sparked an important question in HR circles: How should employers react to unexcused absences caused by employees’ attending political protests? …

EEOC sends message with new guidelines on race, color bias

06/01/2006

The EEOC recently sent a powerful signal about its enforcement priorities when it published newly revised employer guidance on workplace race and color discrimination. The message: Employee complaints of race bias or color bias will be pushed to the top of the EEOC’s inbox …

Capping Salaries Won’t Violate Age-Bias Law

06/01/2006

Q. I have a question about capping employees’ salaries when they reach the top of the pay scale. I’m concerned because the only employees affected are those with many years of service and who happen to be over age 40. Have we made a legal error? Some of the affected employees are angry and have mentioned discrimination based on the residual effect of the cap. —M.M., California

Explicit Sex Talk by the ‘Victim’ Can Be Used as Harassment Defense

05/01/2006

If an employee claims she was sexually harassed but the evidence shows that she gave as good as she got, you have a good defense in hand. As a new ruling shows, employees’ sexual statements can be used against them when they sue for sexual harassment …

Jobs Need to be ‘Substantially Equal,’ Not Identical, to Demand Same Pay

05/01/2006

Some employers wrongly believe that they’re not vulnerable to a federal Equal Pay Act claim when the two jobs in question aren’t identical. But female employees don’t need to meet such a high standard to bring their equal-pay claim to court …

Harassment Investigations Must Be ‘Fundamentally Fair’ to the Accused

05/01/2006

When a sexual harassment accusation arises, employers often move into crisis mode. But don’t try to push the problem off your plate by quickly jettisoning the employee via a kangaroo court …

Loss of supporting documents needn’t sink your defense

05/01/2006

What’s a smart HR professional to do when his or her employer is sued and the records you thought would back up management are gone? You can still save the day by locating different electronic or paper correspondence that supports your decisions …

Learn hotel’s lesson: Don’t require English at all times

05/01/2006

If you have a good business reason, you can require employees to speak English on the job. But don’t go overboard. As a New York City hotel just found out, requiring English be spoken at all times, even in the employee breakroom, can spark an EEOC national-origin claim …

Religious accommodations: Know when to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’

05/01/2006

Employers need to keep their eye on a growing trend: a groundswell of support for more freedom to practice religion in the workplace. And support for the movement is coming from some unexpected quarters: the U.S. Supreme Court and a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators …

EEO-1 compliance: Prepare to comply with the new EEO-1

05/01/2006

In an effort to monitor employment of minorities and females in the work force, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires certain employers to complete and file an Employer Information Report, commonly called an EEO-1 report, by Sept. 30 each year …