On February 26, 2020, in the case of Schmitz v. Alamance-Burlington Board of Education, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina granted in part and denied in part a motion to dismiss claims...more
Can a news organization avoid a discrimination claim by arguing that it was exercising its First Amendment right to choose who writes the news? That’s the question that the California courts have been grappling with in...more
Retailer Permitted Disability Harassment at West Virginia Store, Then Retaliated Against Employee For Reporting Harassment of a Co-Worker, Federal Agency Charged - Elkins, WV - National retailer Big Lots Stores, Inc.,...more
In a recent case in federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Carissa Nealis, a white woman and account executive for CoxCom, LLC, made a retaliation claim based on her reports of a coworker being treated unfairly....more
Cruise Director Fired for Supporting Coworker's Harassment Claim, Federal Agency Charges - MEMPHIS, Tenn. - American Queen Steamboat Company, a cruise company headquartered in Memphis, unlawfully fired an employee after...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Court of Appeal, on rehearing, has superseded a 2016 decision that employers must reasonably accommodate work restrictions because of the disabilities of the employee’s associates. The superseding...more
On April 4, 2016, a California Court of Appeal set new precedent in Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highway Express, opining that the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) may require employers to reasonably...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: California court creates new duty to accommodate employees who, although not themselves disabled, are associated with a disabled person. The Court of Appeal decision in Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable...more
On April 4, 2016, the California Court of Appeal issued an unprecedented ruling in Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highway Express that the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires employers to reasonably...more
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed two recent Title VII lawsuits in which it alleges that various private employers engaged in sexual orientation discrimination. Although sexual orientation is...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a “friend of the court” brief in a sexual orientation discrimination appeal, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination is “sex discrimination” prohibited by Title VII....more
Lighting Manufacturer Fired Employee Because of Grandfather's Discrimination Complaint, Federal Agency Charges - KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Philips Lighting, a Dutch company that provides goods and services in the fields of...more
Siblings 16-year-old H.T. and 14-year-old J.T. began working for ES Holdings Inc. o/a Country Herbs (Country Herbs) in April 2014. H.T. was responsible for packaging herbs, while J.T. made boxes into which herbs were placed...more
In employment law, including association discrimination cases, timing is everything. When Terry Booker was fired from his job of 22 years at Delfasco, a manufacturing facility in Greene County, Tennessee, in March 2012,...more
Can an employer terminate an employee out of a belief that the employee is too distracted from his job duties due to caring for a relative with a disability? That was the issue in the recent case, Kourimihelakis v. Hartford...more
In Rope v. Auto-Chlor System of Washington, Inc., plaintiff Scott Rope, a former branch manager for Auto-Chlor, sued his employer for violation of the newly-enacted Michelle Maykin Memorial Donation Protection Act,...more
“Associational discrimination” refers to a claim that a plaintiff, though not a member of a protected class, was still subjected to some type of adverse action because of his or her association with a member of a protected...more
Third-Party Harassment Costs Employer $30,000 - Why it matters: Employers, take note: harassment in the workplace can be committed not just by supervisors and coworkers, but by third parties such as customers,...more
In a case of first impression, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has approved a worker’s claim under the Commonwealth’s anti-discrimination law, Mass. G.L. c. 151B, that his former employer discriminated against...more
On July 19, 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held in Flagg v. AliMed, Inc. that a non-disabled employee can sue his employer for disability discrimination under Chapter 151B, the state anti-discrimination...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a company summary judgment on an “associational retaliation” claim brought under Title VII by a temporary worker claiming the company ended her assignments...more