Discrimination

  • November 13, 2024

    3 Tips For Addressing Post-Election Workplace Friction

    President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory and the policy changes it portends will leave some people exuberant and others furious. Here are three tips employers can use to minimize political friction among workers while staying on the right side of the law.

  • November 13, 2024

    Worker Says Hospital Fired Her For Flagging Discrimination

    A Boston hospital refused to promote an assistant because of her age, stood in the way of her disability leave request and then fired her after she complained about harassment by her supervisor, according to a suit filed in Massachusetts federal court.

  • November 13, 2024

    MVP: Duane Morris' Gerald L. Maatman Jr.

    Gerald L. Maatman Jr. of Duane Morris LLP has helped his clients fend off potentially catastrophic exposures, including a suit alleging Geico misclassified thousands of insurance agents, by utilizing defense strategies to gut the claims before courts were able to assess the merits of the case, earning him a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Employment MVPs.

  • November 12, 2024

    Merrill Lynch Disfavors Black And Female Advisers, Suit Says

    Two longtime Merrill Lynch financial advisers have filed a proposed class action against Bank of America and its subsidiary Merrill Lynch alleging the firms' policies systematically discriminate against African American and female advisers by favoring white male colleagues in teaming and account distribution practices.

  • November 12, 2024

    Judge Notes 'Serious Issue' In Fired Firm Worker's Appeal

    The outcome of a fired Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan LLC legal assistant's appeal of her loss in a disability discrimination suit may hinge on whether there is a genuine dispute about the demands of the job, a Connecticut judge signaled Tuesday. The judge noted a "substantial" disagreement about whether the position was supposed to be a hybrid of remote and in-person.

  • November 12, 2024

    SkyWest Had 'Lewd, Crude' Work Environment, Jury Hears

    SkyWest Airlines enabled a workplace that was hostile to women, a jury heard during opening arguments Tuesday, driving a woman who worked at the company to consider suicide in the face of unrelenting sexual assault jokes and supervisors who didn't take her concerns seriously.

  • November 12, 2024

    5th Circ. Backs Dismissal Of Black Tech's Race Bias Suit

    The Fifth Circuit rejected a Black worker's bid to revive his suit claiming his pay was cut by a construction and maintenance services company because of his race, ruling his case is devoid of detail that would allow a court to find that bias plagued his employment.

  • November 12, 2024

    University Of Washington Scores Worker Vax Suit Dismissal

    A Washington federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a group of healthcare workers who alleged the University of Washington denied their religious exemptions from a COVID-19 vaccination requirement, saying the university was justified in firing the workers to prevent patients and employees from being exposed to the virus.

  • November 12, 2024

    American Airlines Escapes Pandemic Early Retirement Suit

    A Texas federal court on Tuesday agreed to permanently toss a group of flight attendants' suit against American Airlines Inc. alleging they were misled into taking a less favorable retirement package during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding a suit dismissed earlier over the same conduct bars their claims. 

  • November 12, 2024

    3rd Circ. Won't Revive Port Authority Worker's Race Bias Suit

    The Third Circuit won't revive a Black woman's suit claiming the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey didn't promote her because of her race and her complaints about discrimination, ruling that the bistate agency had legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for not promoting her.

  • November 12, 2024

    Accenture Shouldn't Face Sex Harassment Suit, Judge Says

    Professional services company Accenture should escape a former management consulting analyst's lawsuit claiming they were forced to resign because the company mishandled reports about a supervisor's sexually inappropriate messages, a Georgia federal magistrate judge said, finding most of the worker's claims were filed too late.

  • November 12, 2024

    7th Circ. Overturns JBS' Win In Worker's Color Bias Suit

    A Seventh Circuit panel breathed new life into a color discrimination suit by an employee of Wisconsin beef processing plant JBS Green Bay, saying the case should not have been tossed so soon.

  • November 12, 2024

    Ga. Health Board Fired Worker For Reporting Bias, Suit Says

    The Fulton County Board of Health has been sued in Georgia federal court by a white former employee who alleges she was suspended from her job and then fired for reporting racial discrimination.

  • November 12, 2024

    Job Transfer Enough To Buoy Sex Bias Suit, 2nd Circ. Says

    The Second Circuit ruled Tuesday that an Israeli bank must face a suit from a former executive assistant who said she faced sexist blowback for complaining that her boss came to work with COVID-19, saying her allegation of a retaliatory job transfer was enough to sustain the case.

  • November 12, 2024

    3rd Circ. Says County Not Liable For Accused Harassers' Acts

    The Third Circuit refused to give a Delaware county worker a second shot at his suit claiming one male colleague targeted him with homophobic and racist harassment and another sexually assaulted him, saying the worker didn't do enough to put the company on notice that it needed to intervene.

  • November 12, 2024

    MVP: deRubertis Law's David M. deRubertis

    Worker-side lawyer David deRubertis, who runs his own firm, says he has helped workers win $526 million in damages from their employers in the past two years alone, earning him a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Employment MVPs.

  • November 12, 2024

    High Court Turns Away Fired Cop's Race Discrimination Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to review a Black police officer's suit alleging a New York town unlawfully fired her after she hurt her back, leaving in place the Second Circuit's determination that she lacked evidence of white men being treated better.

  • November 08, 2024

    BCBS Hit With $12.7M Verdict In Worker's Vax Mandate Suit

    A Michigan federal jury on Friday awarded $12.69 million to a former Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan employee who said she was fired after her employer failed to accommodate her religious beliefs, which she said prevented her from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

  • November 08, 2024

    Worker Advocates Will Be On Defense In Trump's 2nd Term

    Worker-side lawyers are buckling up for a challenging four years under President-elect Donald Trump, during which they anticipate a rollback of civil rights regulations and a gutting of federal enforcement agencies. But they also say they're more prepared to fight than they were in 2016. Here, Law360 speaks with the lawyers about major challenges they're anticipating and some of their early plans.

  • November 08, 2024

    Ex-Elanco IP Lawyer Lodges Gender Discrimination Suit

    A female former in-house intellectual property lawyer at Elanco Animal Health Inc. sued the pharmaceutical company for gender discrimination in Indiana federal court, alleging she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less qualified man who later mistreated the women on staff.

  • November 08, 2024

    NYC Water Worker Alleges Retaliation For Off-Duty Pot Use

    A municipal water treatment worker has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the New York City Department of Environmental Protection claiming he was wrongly punished for his legal off-duty use of cannabis and wrongly terminated for refusing to take a drug test when he was actually suffering a medical emergency.

  • November 08, 2024

    DOJ Says Miss. Senate Stiffed Black Atty On Equal Pay

    The U.S. Department of Justice alleged in a race bias suit filed in Mississippi federal court Friday that the state Senate paid a Black attorney at times less than half of what her white colleagues were paid even though they completed the same work.

  • November 08, 2024

    DLA Piper's Performance Critique Is Bogus, Fired Atty Says

    A former DLA Piper associate told a New York federal court that her pregnancy bias case against the firm should be heard by a jury, arguing the firm's assertion that she was fired for careless work is contradicted by bonuses she was given and a lack of disciplinary records.

  • November 08, 2024

    Ga. Man Says City Was Quick To Fire Him For Being 'Slow'

    A 20-year employee of Roswell, Georgia, hit the Atlanta-area city with a disability discrimination lawsuit Thursday, claiming it fired him rather than accommodate his known cognitive disabilities aggravated by a workplace injury two decades earlier.

  • November 08, 2024

    Jackson Lewis Adds Veteran UB Greensfelder Atty In Ohio

    Jackson Lewis PC has expanded its employment counseling and litigation capabilities in Cleveland with the addition of a longtime UB Greensfelder LLP attorney.

Expert Analysis

  • After Chevron: EEOC Status Quo Will Likely Continue

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    As the legal landscape adjusts to the end of Chevron deference, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s rulemaking authority isn’t likely to shift as much as some other employment-related agencies, says Paige Lyle at FordHarrison.

  • After Chevron: Various Paths For Labor And Employment Law

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    Labor and employment law leans heavily on federal agency guidance, so the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to toss out Chevron deference will ripple through this area, with future workplace policies possibly taking shape through strategic litigation, informal guidance, state-level regulation and more, says Alexander MacDonald at Littler.

  • FIFA Maternity Policy Shows Need For Federal Paid Leave

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    While FIFA and other employers taking steps to provide paid parental leave should be applauded, the U.S. deserves a red card for being the only rich nation in the world that offers no such leave, says Dacey Romberg at Sanford Heisler.

  • What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation

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    Recent federal court decisions in the Fearless Fund and Hello Alice cases shed new light on the ongoing wave of challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with opposite conclusions on whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Eye On Compliance: A Brief History Of Joint Employer Rules

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    It's important to examine the journey of the joint employer rule, because if the National Labor Relations Board's Fifth Circuit appeal is successful and the 2023 version is made law, virtually every employer who contracts for labor likely could be deemed a joint employer, say Bruno Katz and Robert Curtis at Wilson Elser.

  • Top 5 Issues For Employers To Audit Midyear

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    Six months into 2024, developments from federal courts and regulatory agencies should prompt employers to reflect on their progress regarding artificial intelligence, noncompetes, diversity initiatives, religious accommodation and more, say Allegra Lawrence-Hardy and Lisa Haldar at Lawrence & Bundy.

  • Tailoring Compliance Before AI Walks The Runway

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    Fashion industry players that adopt artificial intelligence to propel their businesses forward should consider ways to minimize its perceived downsides, including potential job displacements and algorithmic biases that may harm diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, say Jeffrey Greene and Ivory Djahouri at Foley & Lardner.

  • Where Anti-Discrimination Law Stands 4 Years After Bostock

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    On the fourth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Bostock ruling, Evan Parness and Abby Rickeman at Covington take stock of how the decision, which held that Title VII protects employees from discrimination because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, has affected anti-discrimination law at the state and federal levels.

  • Politics In The Workplace: What Employers Need To Know

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    As the 2024 election approaches and protests continue across the country, employers should be aware of employees' rights — and limits on those rights — related to political speech and activities in the workplace, and be prepared to act proactively to prevent issues before they arise, say attorneys at Littler.

  • What High Court Ruling Means For Sexual Harassment Claims

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    In its recent Smith v. Spizzirri decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court compelling a case to arbitration is obligated to stay the case rather than dismissing it, but this requirement may result in sexual harassment cases not being heard by appellate courts, says Abe Melamed at Signature Resolution.

  • 5 Steps For Gov't Contractor Affirmative Action Verification

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    As the federal contractor affirmative action program certification deadline approaches, government contractors and subcontractors should take steps to determine their program obligations, and ensure any required plans are properly implemented and timely registered, say Christopher Wilkinson at Perkins Coie and Joanna Colosimo at DCI Consulting.

  • New OSHA Memo Helps Clarify Recordkeeping Compliance

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    Based on recent Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidance on whether musculoskeletal disorders are recordable injuries under the agency's recordkeeping regulation, it appears that OSHA may target active release techniques and stretching programs during its inspections, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Cos. Must Stay On Alert With Joint Employer Rule In Flux

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    While employers may breathe a sigh of relief at recent events blocking the National Labor Relations Board's proposed rule that would make it easier for two entities to be deemed joint employers, the rule is not yet dead, say attorneys at ​​​​​​​Day Pitney.