FB Employment Discrimination Blog

Subscribe
Visit Blog
By: FisherBroyles, LLP

Blog Authors

Richard Cohen
Amy Epstein Gluck

Latest from FB Employment Discrimination Blog

http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-08-hand-sanitizer-4972049_1920-png
What we know about COVID-19 has evolved so much over the past five months, forcing companies to be nimbler than ever to protect themselves from coronavirus-related liability. But, amidst this change, one unfortunate constant has emerged: employers continue to ask employees to sign waivers of liability to mitigate the risk if an employee later contracts COVID-19 and sues. Stop it! As Eric Meyer and I posted in a FisherBroyles Client Alert today, we neither…
https-cdn-pixabay-com-photo-2018-10-02-11-13-girl-3718526_960_720-jpg
By: Amy Epstein Gluck My county’s school board just made an announcement: my 15-year-old will not be attending school with his friends, in person, this fall. There is no half and half option. It’s all remote, period. He will not be playing hockey either, a fact that has him unhappy. What does this have to do with employment law? Well, a lot actually. Why? Because of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Remember, because…
http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-02-enough-jpg
By: Amy Epstein Gluck Employers, what kind of culture are you fostering? Is it one of respect and intolerance of unlawful harassment? Or is it one that perpetuates systemic racism? That is one question raised in this recent federal complaint, filed by two former employees and one current employee, all Black, against one employer in the U.S. District Court for Kansas. You can read the complaint here. The allegations describe a “hostile work environment”…
http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-01-noose-2020-jpg
Here in good ol’ NYC, a new case was filed of racial harassment of an African American employee alleging (take a guess … you can do it) … use of the N-word!  Wouldn’t you know it – a racial harassment case using the N-word.  How last year, right? (Well, to be accurate, the acts alleged to have occurred in this case were from 2018). I try to cull as many filed cases of workplace racial…
“[T]he priority should be to make sure that employers have a safe workplace.” This is always a priority, and in light of the covid pandemic, our partner Amy Epstein Gluck (a/k/a the Notorious AEG), restated this in a new SHRM article about antibody tests and the workplace implications. Amy cited what the medical experts are now conceding, that “We do not know what it means yet to have COVID-19 antibodies. We do not know it…
http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-06-fish-300x214-1-jpg
Sigh … I’m getting tired of repeatedly blogging that health care and medical providers are at serious risk of EEOC enforcement actions for alleged violations of the disability pregnancy discrimination laws because they are easy pickins. Or like shooting fish in a barrel. As I have blogged … maybe a gazillion times … such employers are “low hanging fruit” because the EEOC can force an early settlement simply by pointing out to the world at…
http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-06-rainbow-828920_1920-jpg
By: Amy Epstein Gluck An employer who fires or takes an adverse action against an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”). So said the Supreme Court of the United States (“SCOTUS”) on June 15, 2020, a little more than eight months after hearing oral arguments on these issues October 8, 2019. Wait, what’s going on? What’s this about? At the time of…
Wow! As noted in today’s New York Times, in a 6-3 Title VII decision written by JUSTICE GORSUCH (!) and joined in by Chief Justice Roberts: “The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination, handing the movement for L.G.B.T. equality a stunning victory.” This decision was long in coming, and the prevailing position advanced by the EEOC was hotly disputed by the same…
http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-01-noose-2020-jpg
Even in the midst of a great societal upheaval regarding racial discrimination and harassment, cases of workplace harassment continue unabated.  I guess it is unsurprising, albeit unfortunate, given that the workplace is riven with the same issues as society at large, and, indeed, is simply a microcosm of society at large. I’ve written so much about workplace racial harassment, especially when it involves the ubiquitous N-word and/or nooses, that once again I am not surprised…
http-employmentdiscrimination-fisherbroyles-com-wp-content-uploads-2020-05-virus-4931227_1920-jpg
By: Amy Epstein Gluck As an employment lawyer, I’ve been pretty busy these past couple of week reviewing, revising, and creating return-to-work policies for clients. I’ve got lists. My lists have lists. There’s the social distancing protocol list, hand sanitizer/hand-washing list, and the various federal, state, and local mandates and recommendations, just to name a few. I’m sure you’ve seen the myriad checklists out there for businesses able to reopen so that they may do…