Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court is notable for several reasons. Not only is Justice Jackson the first African-American woman to serve on the Supreme Court, but she is the only member of the Court to have served as a Federal Public
Recently, Belgium announced a labor reform allowing for a four-day work week. The reforms also provided workers the ability to power off work devices and ignore work-related messages without fear of retaliation. The aim of the reforms was to increase productivity and strengthen both people
Not cool. On its face that violates the Equal Pay Act. The Equal Pay Act is a federal law that states employees of one sex must be paid the same as employees of the opposite sex for the same job. Here it is in legalese:
No
One of the most efficient ways in the discrimination context to show that an employer’s stated reason for termination is false is showing that it has changed its reason for termination. The applicable case law calls these shifting reasons, and it is a powerful tool in
The current pandemic brought several changes to our work lives and brought about an important, but obvious, realization: we do not all need offices. Over the past year, countless businesses realized their workforce could perform just as efficiently, if not more so, from home. This
Most people are familiar with an employer’s duty under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide a qualified worker with a reasonable accommodation so that they are able to perform the essential job functions of their position. Yet, not as many people are aware that Title
First and foremost, climate change is real. Temperatures are more extreme and extreme weather events are more common. As a result, workers who work outside are at a greater risk of illness, injury, and even death from heat exposure than ever before. Still, the Occupational
As a precursor to filing a lawsuit under the laws that the EEOC enforces such as Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, employees must first file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. As it stands now, the vast majority of these charges are dismissed by the EEOC. But not because these charges lack merit. The dismissal is often necessitated by a lack of resources and investigators. Often times this leaves the EEOC unable to conduct a proper investigation into the thousands of charges that are filed each year with the federal agency.
At this moment, the EEOC is on the precipice of making two major changes to the process of how the federal agency is going to handle the dismissal of charges of discrimination. These changes will include a change in the procedures in which the dismissals are processed, and they will include a change in the dismissal language contained in the right to sue letters that the EEOC issues upon the dismissal of a charge of discrimination. I will attempt to briefly outline some of the dangers and benefits of these changes
Continue Reading EEOC Contemplates Much Needed Changes for Charge Dismissals
I hear it all of the time during consultations. A potential client will tell me about the discrimination they have experienced at work. They will describe how they were the only member of a protected class (age, race, sex, disability, religion, national origin, color) who applied for a promotion and that in fact, they were the only one qualified for the position, but they didn’t get it. “You know,” they will continue, “I can’t think of anyone in my protected class who has been promoted to such a position.” I will then ask this person why they think they were not promoted. The person will then invariably say, “I think it was because of my protected class, but I can’t prove it.”
Continue Reading Circumstantial Evidence is just as Good as Direct Evidence
One issue that comes up repeatedly is whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee. The reason this comes up quite often in an employment law context is because most employment laws only apply to employees. For example, the retaliation provision of Title VII, which prohibits retaliation for reporting unlawful discrimination, expressly applies only to employees.** The difference also matters for benefits, overtime pay, minimum wage, and tax consequences. Very broadly speaking, independent contracts are usually cheaper for employers than employees. Because of that, employers often misclassify employees as independent contractors. This blog post looks at what that means.
