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Retaliation Corporate Counsel Hostile Environment

Foley & Lardner LLP

California Supreme Court Affirms Single Comment Can Constitute Harassment and Addresses Standard for Retaliation

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In a July 29, 2024, opinion, the California Supreme Court reaffirmed that a single use of a racial epithet can be severe enough to be actionable harassment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)....more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Get with the Pronoun: Eleventh Circuit Rules Pervasive Misgendering Is Harassment

If an employer or coworker persistently uses a transgender worker’s wrong name or identified pronoun, can that constitute a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII? In Copeland v. Georgia Department of Corrections,...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Second Circuit Ruling Could “Impact” Discrimination Claims Brought by Remote Workers under NYS Human Rights Law

In King v. Aramark Services, Inc., No. 22-1237 (March 20, 2024), a Second Circuit panel affirmed the dismissal of claims under the New York State Human Rights Law (“NYSHRL”), concluding that under New York’s “impact test,”...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Claims of Hostile Work Environment Happened Over Too Long a Period, Court Rules

Last week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims from a university professor that she had been subjected to a series of retaliatory acts in the two- and one-half year period following her filing an Equal...more

Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC

Second Circuit Clarifies Federal Law on Employment Retaliation Claims

In a recent decision, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appeals court covering New York and adjacent states, sought to clarify the federal law standard for evaluating retaliation claims under the principal...more

Genova Burns LLC

Glass Houses: Hostile Work Environment Claim Dismissed Due to Employee’s Own Unprofessional Conduct

Genova Burns LLC on

On April 19, 2022, in Bouziotis v. Iron Bar, LLC, the New Jersey Appellate Division upheld a trial court’s dismissal of a former bartender’s hostile work environment and gender discrimination claims partly on the grounds that...more

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Fourth Circuit Reverses, Reinstates Title VII Discrimination Claim

Title VII permits retaliation claims even when the plaintiff is not the party against whom the initial discrimination was directed, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit has ruled, reversing the district court’s dismissal...more

Sherman & Howard L.L.C.

Employee’s Failure To Give Employer A Chance to Remedy Co-Worker Harassment Doomed Legal Claim

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Lopez v. Whirlpool Corp. reminds employers and employees alike that an employer may not be liable for co-worker sexual harassment when the complaining employee resigns...more

McAfee & Taft

Think twice before you dismiss a cry for help: ADA accommodation request or not?

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You know the scenarios: an employee reports his chair is bothering him; another employee reports the glare of the computer screen is hurting her eyes; and a third employee explains he needs a different office space, better...more

Orrick - Employment Law and Litigation

Hut-Hut-Hike: The Second Circuit Tackles Hostile Work Environment Claims Under the ADA

In a case of first impression, the Second Circuit has held that hostile work environment claims are cognizable under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). In Fox v. Costco Wholesale Corporation, No.17-0936-CV (2d Cir....more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Once Is Enough: Tennessee Federal Court Rules Single Use of ‘N-Word’ By Co-Worker Sufficient to Get Hostile Work Environment Claim...

Usually, once is not enough, at least in the hostile work environment context. Unless, as the court found in Ronnie L. Outlaw v. SBH Services, Inc., it is. Typically, a single incident of harassment – especially by a...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Court Confirms Employer Can Be Liable For Harassment By Non-Employee

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Faced with a question not yet addressed by the Third Circuit, a federal judge in Pennsylvania found an employer, as well as individual managers, may be held liable for an employee’s claim of a hostile work environment based...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Fourth Circuit Ruling Provides Cautionary Tale for Employer’s Managing Internal Harassment Complaints and Investigations

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Fourth Circuit recently found that reducing a current employee’s voluntary overtime opportunities – despite the absence of a reduction in overall income – could be considered a tangible or materially...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Just What Does A Racially Hostile Environment Look Like? The Eleventh Circuit Provides Some Guidance

What constitutes a racially hostile work environment? Is one really bad comment specifically aimed at the plaintiff sufficient or do you need a sustained series of racial comments? What if you have both but no evidence that...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Don’t Ignore the Kissing Supervisor—Court Rules that Employer’s Knowledge of Past Behavior Negates Faragher-Ellerth Defense

Employment lawyers and most HR professionals are familiar with the Faragher-Ellerth defense to a claim of sexual harassment. In short, if an employer can show that (1) it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct...more

Snell & Wilmer

#MeToo Era Settlements...$3.5 Million at a Time

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Recently, a California company settled a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) sexual harassment lawsuit by consent decree for $3.5 million. Additionally, and as part of the settlement, the company will hire a...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Fifth Circuit Rules Employers Are Not Always Protected From Liability Resulting From Harassment by Nonemployees With Diminished...

Courts have ruled that employees who work with clients with diminished capacity present different challenges when establishing whether the nonemployee’s alleged harassment affected the terms and conditions of the employee’s...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Winning Harassment Claims in the #MeToo Era

In this #MeToo era, employers are, understandably, a little sensitive when someone raises a claim of harassment. Even with the heightened sense of peril, companies should remember that if they are doing the right thing—having...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

It May Be A New World For Sexual Harassment, But Many Old Rules Still Apply

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In the weeks since allegations began to surface regarding the sexually predatory behavior of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, sexual harassment allegations (sometimes admitted and sometimes disputed) against powerful, prominent...more

Franczek P.C.

End of Fiscal Year Filings Signal Business as Usual at the EEOC – For Now

Franczek P.C. on

Just like the leaves turning colors, you can count on a flurry of court filings from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) every September as the agency rushes to get cases on file before the end of its fiscal...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Court Uses Novel Issue Certification Device To Sidestep Individualized Issues Otherwise Precluding Class Certification

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Seyfarth Synopsis: A group of female truck drivers sued their employer for policies allegedly resulting in a hostile work environment for and retaliation against women who complained of sexual harassment on the job. Under...more

Bowditch & Dewey

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Decision Lends Further Confusion to Title VII Protections

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In a rather disconnected decision on March 10, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled, in the case of Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, that while Title VII bars an employer from discriminating...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Same-Sex Harassment Not Actionable When Conduct Not Based on Gender

Employees can consider a working environment to be hostile due to sexual conduct, even when the workplace is all male or all female. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and federal courts have long held that...more

Franczek P.C.

Sweet Justice! Dismissal of Bully's FMLA Claim Proves Employers Can Safely Terminate an Employee on the Heels of FMLA Leave

Franczek P.C. on

I hate bullies. Back in 4th grade, Sister Mary Demetria, OSF, told us that “hating” someone was a sin. I’m convinced Sister never met a bully. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Cause, you see, whenever I...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Finds Rebellious Behavior by Subordinates Insufficient to Constitute Hostile Work Environment

Most hostile environment harassment claims brought under Title VII involve allegations of offensive conduct by the plaintiff’s supervisors or co-workers. In a few situations, the employee alleges that his or her subordinates...more

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