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Sex-Plus Age Claim Viable Under Title VII

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
07/31/2020
Age Discrimination, Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination
In Frappied v. Affinity Gaming Black Hawk, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit became the first federal appeal s court to recognize that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964 permits “sex-plus age” claims.  The case arose from a lawsuit filed against a gaming company.  The eight female plaintiffs alleged the casino for which they worked discriminated against women over 40 years old, and they brought several claims, including...
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Supreme Court Rules That Gay and Transgender Employees Are Protected Under Title VII

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
06/16/2020
Employment Discrimination, Same-Sex Marriage, Sex Discrimination, Supreme Court Decisions
In a landmark 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Title VII protections extend to gay and transgender employees. The Bostock case was a consolidation of three cases wherein an employee was terminated for being homosexual or transgender. Gerald Bostock was fired shortly after joining a gay recreational softball league. Donald Zarda was terminated shortly after he announced being gay. Aimee Stephens was fired after informing her...
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Court Rules U.S. Women’s World Cup Champions Can’t Get More Than They Bargained For, Dismisses Equal Pay Claim

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/05/2020
Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination
The U.S. women’s soccer team suffered a rare defeat on Friday when a federal court in California dismissed the team’s claims against the U.S. Soccer Federation alleging wage discrimination based on sex.  You can read the decision here. In support of the women’s equal pay lawsuit filed in March of last year, the team argued that the collective bargaining agreements for the men’s and women’s U.S. soccer teams established -- as a matter...
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Maryland’s Equal Pay Law: Are You In Compliance?

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
07/11/2019
Employment Discrimination, Gender Identity, Legal Developments, Sex Discrimination, State Law
Watching the U.S. Women’s National Team play in and win the World Cup this past weekend took me right back to my own days of competitive girls’ soccer.  But nostalgia wasn’t the only thing that came to mind as the win brought additional attention to the Team’s recent lawsuit for equal pay.  That lawsuit, filed in March, generally alleges that the players on the Women’s National Team (“WNT”) are paid less than the players on...
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Fourth Circuit Rejects Professor's Pay Discrimination Claim

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
03/25/2019
Business Law, Sex Discrimination, Virginia Employment Law
On March 18, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgment to Virginia State University, rejecting a sociology professor’s claims that she was paid less than two male colleagues because she is a woman. The Court agreed with Senior District Court Judge Henry Hudson that the disparity in pay was the result of differences in job responsibilities, as well as the fact that the men had both been...
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Lactating KFC Employee Able To Use Denial Of Proper Place To Express Milk As Evidence In Her Sex Harassment Claims

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
02/14/2019
Lactation In The Workplace, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for up to one year after the child's birth.  Employers are also required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.  While a potential violation of the FLSA...
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Not Just “Meat Counter Culture”: When Same-Sex Harassment Violates Title VII

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
08/10/2018
Damages, Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Supervisor Liability
Most of the time, the stories of workplace sexual harassment we hear about consist of conduct occurring between men and women.  Yet Title VII’s ban on discrimination because of sex encompasses same-sex harassment in the workplace as well.  Such was the lesson learned for a Chicago, Illinois grocery store that had justified the harassment of a male butcher as mere “meat counter culture” in Smith v. Rosebud Farm, Inc., Case No. 17-2626,...
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A Case of Pregnancy and Pretext

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/23/2018
Employment Discrimination, Pregnancy Discrimination, Pretext, Sex Discrimination
How do courts handle cases of alleged pretextual behavior designed to cover up discriminatory actions? A recent Tenth Circuit decision sheds a little light on this issue. Fassbender v. Correct Care Solutions, LLC, No. 17-3054 (10th Cir. May 15, 2018). Alena Fassbender worked for Correct Care Solutions (CCS) as a medication aide at a Kansas detention center.  Fassbender was pushing her medication cart down one of the center’s cell blocks on April...
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Federal Court Dismisses Discrimination Claim for Failure to Show Disparate Treatment

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/16/2018
Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination
A Lousiana federa court dismissed a sex discrimination claim brought by a former UPS manager because he failed to show that the company treated similarly situated female employees  better than him.  Williams v . UPS, No. 16-450-SDD-RLB (M.D.La. 5/11/18).  The decision reinforces the importance of proving that a discrimination plaintiff was treated  differently than persons outside their protected group to get a case to trial. In Williams, UPS...
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Fourth Circuit Allows EEOC to Proceed with Equal Pay Claim

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
01/17/2018
Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination
Last week, the Fourth Circuit issued a favorable decision for the EEOC in a case the federal agency brought against the Maryland Insurance Administration (“MIA”) for violations of the Equal Pay Act (“EPA”).  United States EEOC v. Md. Ins. Admin., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 298 (4th Cir. Jan. 5, 2018). The Underlying Case The lawsuit grew from three female MIA Fraud Investigators’ complaints that they made less money than male Fraud...
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