Congress Considering Bills for a More “Transparent” EEOC

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
09/23/2014
Any lawyer who has defended an employer sued by the EEOC knows that sometimes – not always – it can be a real challenge, facing an unrelenting assault by a government agency that seems bent on destruction. Sure, you might run into a private practice plaintiff’s lawyer who is uncivil, who is unwilling to discuss reasonable settlement terms, and whose mission in life is to ratchet up attorneys’ fees and/or drive the employer into bankruptcy....
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Blind Sales Representative Not Entitled To A Driver As An Accommodation

A federal court in North Carolina has ruled that a pharmaceutical company need not provide a legally blind sales representative with a driver as a reasonable accommodation. Stephenson v. Pfizer, Inc. No. 1:13cv147 (M.D.N.C. Sept. 8, 2014)   Whitney Stephenson worked for Pfizer as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Stephenson’s job required her to meet with physicians to sell Pfizer products. She typically met with eight to ten physicians a...
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This Workplace Really is Going to the Dogs

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/11/2014
Even under the best of circumstances, most of us view rental car counters the way we view airport security: essential to get where we are going, but not a place we want to spend more time than absolutely necessary. The circumstances of one Hawaii rental car counter as described recently in Assaturian v. Hertz Motor Corp. provide a particularly memorable, messy example of this phenomenon. John Assaturian was a long-time Hertz employee who served from...
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Same Sex Trainer Policy for Truck Drivers Runs Afoul of Title VII

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/10/2014
Remedying a problem in the wrong way may end up creating more problems for an employer than it solves. In EEOC v. New Prime, Inc.,   a federal court in Missouri  held in that an employer’s policy enacted in response to an earlier sexual harassment suit brought against it was facially discriminatory on the basis of sex. New Prime, Inc. (“Prime”), an interstate trucking company, requires its drivers to have or to acquire a Commercial...
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DOL Issues Guidance Concerning Gender Identity and Transgender Status

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
08/25/2014
On August 19, 2014, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued guidance concerning enforcement actions for gender or transgender discrimination. This guidance follows up on President Obama’s Executive Order 13672, which added gender identity and sexual orientation as protected categories in federal employment and contracting. The DOL guidance makes clear that the OFCCP – the agency charged with...
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Drug-Free Workplaces In The Era Of Medical And/or Legal Marijuana Use

An employee with terminal illness or severe pain obtains medical marijuana from a licensed dispensary.  His or her employer, however, maintains a drug-free workplace policy that provides for employee drug testing. What can an employer do under these circumstances?  This post is designed to provide a basic snapshot of the current state of the law, and the prominent issues that employers face.  As detailed below, employers are generally blanketed...
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D.C. Is The Latest Jurisdiction To "Ban The Box"

Following in the footsteps of Baltimore and a number of other states and localities, the District of Columbia City Council recently approved a “ban the box” bill that prohibits employers from asking about a job applicant’s criminal history until after making a conditional job offer.  In a D.C.-specific wrinkle, the bill, known as the Fair Criminal Record Screening Act of 2014 (“the Act”), must first be approved both by Mayor Vincent Gray...
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Court Revives Harassment Claim of Employee Who Had Office “Romance”

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
07/24/2014
Any employment lawyer knows that, when assessing claims of “disparate treatment,” it’s less about what exactly happened and more about how the plaintiff was treated when compared to similarly situated employees. The Seventh Circuit recently looked at just that issue in reinstating the harassment and sex discrimination claims of a former Indiana prison employee who was fired for having sex at work. Orton-Bell v. Indiana, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS...
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President Issues Executive Order on LGBT Protections

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
07/23/2014
On July 21, 2014, President Obama issued an Executive Order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors. The Executive Order amends two existing executive orders: E.O. 11246, which applies to federal contractors, by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes protected from employment discrimination; and E.O. 11478, which applies to government agencies, to explicitly prohibit...
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Employer Responsible For Customer Harassment Of Its Employee

In a significant ruling for employers everywhere, and particularly those in the Fourth Circuit, which includes Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, the Fourth Circuit just held that a black female who was subjected to offensive conduct by a customer should have her Title VII harassment claims decided by a jury. With its decision in Freeman v. Dal-Tile Corp., No. 13-1481 (4th Cir. April 29, 2014), the Fourth Circuit...
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