Well, Donna, there’s no need to terminate these laws; they are already dead.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
An obituary for employment at-will
Well, Donna, there’s no need to terminate these laws; they are already dead.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, June 5, 2019
SCOTUS decides whether Title VII’s charge-filing precondition to suit is jurisdictional or non-jurisdictional
To file a private employment discrimination lawsuit under one of the federal employment discrimination statutes, a plaintiff must first exhaust his or her remedies by filing a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Proposed law wants to convert “anti-vaxxer” into a protected class
With a couple of important exceptions, an employer can require that employees be up to date on their vaccinations.
The exceptions?
1/ An employee with an ADA disability that prevents him or her from receiving a vaccine may be entitled to an exemption from a mandatory vaccination requirement as a reasonable accommodation.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, June 3, 2019
Thorough internal investigation saves employer from discrimination claim
Open and shut discrimination case? Not quite.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, April 11, 2019
The three things you need to know from the EEOC's 2018 charge data
Yesterday, the EEOC released its charge statistics for 2018. There are three big things you need to know.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, January 21, 2019
Ohio amends its employment laws to limit joint employment for franchisors
As the debate over the meaning of "joint employer" continues to rage at both the NLRB and in the federal courts, Ohio has jumped into the debate by passing legislation to limit this definition under various Ohio employment laws.
Effective yesterday, franchisors will not be deemed joint employers with their franchisees unless:
- the franchisor agrees to assume that role in writing or a court of competent; or
- a court of competent jurisdiction determines that the franchisor exercises a type or degree of control over the franchisee or the franchisee's employees that is not customarily exercised by a franchisor for the purpose of protecting the franchisor's trademark, brand.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Training won't fix stupid
A fast-food restaurant fired a recently hired employee after its manager learned she was pregnant.
How do we know this was the manager's reason for the termination? Because he texted it to the employee (which she later posted on Facebook).
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Despite what one court held, workplace discrimination laws DO protect employees from non-employees
Pop quiz: Can an employer ignore harassment or other discriminatory behavior directed at employees by non-employees?
If your answer is "yes," you'd be in agreement with the court in Shaw v. Access Ohio (Ohio Ct. App. 7/27/18).
You'd also be dead wrong.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Tattoos at work: more acceptance, yet still some legal risk
By ABC TV [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
In fact, according to one recent survey, 3 in 10 Americans have at least one tattoo, up 50% in just four years. And, the younger you are, the more likely you are to sport a tattoo: 47% of millennials have a tattoo, as compared to 36% of gen Xers and only 13% of baby boomers.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, February 19, 2018
NLRB dismisses James Damore charge against Google—complaints about too much diversity are not protected
According to the NLRB, the answer, at least under federal labor law, is yes, the termination is legal.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, January 18, 2018
Employee’s refusal to take drug test dooms discrimination claim
Can an employee, terminated for refusing to submit to a “reasonable suspicion” drug test, sue the employer for discrimination?
According to one recent federal district court opinion (and good ol’ common sense), the answer is no.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, January 15, 2018
Today’s America would deeply disturb Dr. MLK
A date appropriate reminder that our nation works better when our leaders seek to unite rather than divide.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Diversity is not an ideology
By now, you’ve likely heard about the male Google employee (James Damore) who circulated within the company a 10-page memo entitled, “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.” In this memo, he critiqued Google’s efforts at maintaining gender diversity within the ranks of its employees, arguing that women are underrepresented in tech not because of workplaces biases and discrimination, but because of inherent psychological differences between the sexes.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, February 9, 2017
“It’s not fair”
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, February 2, 2017
Ohio again tries to restore sanity to its bonkers employment discrimination law
It was almost one year ago to the day that I penned, Now is the time to restore balance to Ohio’s employment discrimination law: Endorsing the Employment Law Uniformity Act. I wrote:
For lack of more artful description, Ohio’s employment discrimination law is a mess. It exposes employers to claims for up to six years, renders managers and supervisors personally liable for discrimination, contains no less than four different ways for employees to file age discrimination claims (each with different remedies and filing deadlines), and omits any filing prerequisites with the state civil rights agency.Last year’s attempt at this sanity restoration, Senate Bill 268, died at the end of 2016 with the expiration of the last legislative session.
Thankfully, however, House Bill 2 has resurrected this attempt. (And, yes, the irony that today is Groundhog Day is not lost on me.)
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, December 12, 2016
Common sense (sort of) prevails in Ohio over gun-owner discrimination law
My Twitter feed absolutely exploded with confusion and outrage. Some of the better replies:
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, December 8, 2016
Ohio set to elevate gun ownership to a protected employment class #TerribleIdea
How do you get conservative lawmakers to agree to add a protected class to an employment discrimination law? Focus on protecting on gun ownership, apparently.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, October 20, 2016
Is social recruiting discriminatory?
Yesterday, I noted that the EEOC is examining the impact of “big data” on how employers reach employment decisions.
Looking at an issue and doing something about it, however, are two entirely different animals. I wonder what business the EEOC has looking at this issue at all. The EEOC’s mission is to eliminate discrimination from the workplace. Certainly, there is no claim that neutral data points intentionally or invidiously discriminate based on protected classes.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Our employment discrimination laws are not a pretense
Last week, the 6th Circuit decided Richardson v. Wal-Mart Stores [pdf], a fairly run of the mill age discrimination lawsuit. The court decided that Richardson had failed to establish that Wal-Mart’s reason for firing her—a two-year history of disciplinary warnings—was pretext for age discrimination.
What caught my interest was not the decision itself, but instead the following statement made by the plaintiff’s attorney to Employment Law 360 about the decision:
The unfortunate reality is that anti-employment discrimination laws have largely become a pretense in the U.S. These laws remain on the books; but many courts rarely enforce them.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Did the 7th Circuit finally kill McDonnell Douglas?
If you are an employment lawyer, the words “McDonnell Douglas” will bring a sentimental tear to your eye.
For the unfamiliar, the McDonnell Douglas is an evidentiary framework used in discrimination cases, which lack direct evidence of discrimination, to determine whether an employee’s claim should survive summary judgment and proceed to trial. It first asks whether the plaintiff can establish a prima facie case of discrimination—(i) s/he belongs to a protected class; (ii) s/he was qualified for the position; (iii) though qualified, s/he suffered some adverse action; and (iv) the employer treated similarly situated people outside of his/her protected class differently. If the plaintiff satisfies this minimal showing, the burden shifts to the employer to articulate a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for the adverse action. Once the employer makes this articulation, the burden shifts again, back to the plaintiff to show that the employer’s reason is a pretext for discrimination.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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