Last November, we explained the decision in the case of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Scott Medical Health Center, P.C., from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.  There, the court concluded that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation.  Our previous post on this case can be found here. To recap, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) filed the…

The Pennsylvania Personnel Files Act (also known as the Inspection of Employment Records Law), grants employees in Pennsylvania, or their designated agents, the right to inspect certain portions of their personnel records. The Act requires employers, upon an employee’s request, to permit the employee to inspect the portions of his or her personnel file used to determine qualifications for employment, promotion, additional compensation, termination or disciplinary action.  Employers must make the records available during regular…

In the Third Circuit, an employer’s honest belief that an employee committed misconduct can now serve as a defense to a retaliation claim under the FMLA.  With the recent decision in Capps v. Mondelez Global, LLC (found here) the Third Circuit joins the Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Circuits in providing such a defense. In the Capps case, Mondelez (the employer) fired Fredrick Capps (a longtime employee) for what Mondelez believed to be dishonest use…

The Philadelphia City Council recently passed Bill No. 160840, a wage equity ordinance (the “Ordinance”), that will amend Philadelphia’s Fair Practices Ordinance to prohibit employers or employment agencies from inquiring about the wage history of potential employees.  Among other things, the Ordinance also includes an anti-retaliation provision, which prohibits any form of retaliation against a prospective employee for failing to comply with a wage history inquiry. More specifically, the Ordinance provides that it is…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (‘EEOC”) has been aggressively advancing its position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation even though sexual orientation is not expressly identified as a protected class. More information on the EEOC’s position is available here. Recently, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania agreed with the EEOC’s position. In, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Scott…