The largest jury award ever for a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit must be reduced to meet a statutory cap, the commission noted May 10 in final court filings. A court will have the final say over whether the…
Category Archives: Equal Employment Opportunity
Employer Will Pay $50,000 to Settle EEOC’s First GINA Lawsuit
May 14, 2013 – 2:22 pm
An Oklahoma employer will pay $50,000 to settle the first lawsuit the federal government filed to enforce the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The case, Civil Case No.: 13-CV-248-CVE-PJC, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of…
EEOC Urged to Align Wellness Standards With HIPAA/ACA Rules
May 10, 2013 – 10:12 am
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s failure thus far to issue clear guidance on permissible wellness incentives threatens to undermine employers’ development of wellness programs at a time when their importance is growing, business groups warned the EEOC at a…
ADA Compliance Can Entail Accommodating Seasonal Affective Disorder
April 12, 2013 – 12:13 pm
Under the new, broader definition of “disability” implemented by the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, employers must be more vigilant than ever in accommodating workers with a wide range of impairments. This includes depression-related conditions such as seasonal affective…
Key Wage-and-hour Language to Have in Your Employee Handbook
March 27, 2013 – 12:03 pm
To prevent the consequences from imprecise employee handbook language, employers should regularly review their handbooks and written policies. Since wage and hour lawsuits make up a significant part of litigation, W&H provisions can make a difference as you draft or…
Court Rejects EEOC Guidance on Employee Alcohol Testing
March 22, 2013 – 1:28 pm
An employer’s random alcohol testing of probationary employees did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, despite federal agency guidance to the contrary, a federal district court has ruled (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. United States Steel Corp., No. 10–12…
Protecting Pregnant Worker Job Rights Requires Employer Vigilance
March 8, 2013 – 2:30 pm
True or False: An employer is free to fire a pregnant employee once she has exhausted all her leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The most accurate answer: It depends. The FMLA requires covered employers to provide up…
EEOC Discrimination Disputes Cost Employers More than $400 Million in 2012
January 31, 2013 – 11:20 am
Employers paid more than $400 million to resolve discrimination cases filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in fiscal 2012, according to data released by the agency Jan. 28. Among private-sector workers, retaliation, race and sex discrimination, respectively, were…
EEOC: Retailer automatically fired employees who exhausted sick leave
December 18, 2012 – 5:46 pm
A national retail chain will pay $2 million to settle claims it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by requesting too much medical information from employees and automatically firing employees who had exhausted their sick leave. The agreement settles a 2008…
EEOC’s Confidentiality Requirements Are Too Strict, Court Says
November 29, 2012 – 7:04 pm
Federal guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act states that all employee medical information must be kept confidential, but that goes above and beyond what the statute requires, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 20. Despite what…