Last week the U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2011-12 Term. Here are summaries of the labor and employment cases decided this term.
Hosanna-Taylor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, (No. 10-553) (holding that teacher at religious school qualified as a "minister" within the meaning of the ministerial exception to Title VII and therefore
The Texas Supreme Court held that an age discrimination plaintiff is never entitled to an inference of age discrimination at the prima facie case where the employee’s replacement is older than plaintiff-employee. In that situation, the plaintiff must establish a prima facie case through direct evidence of age discrimination.
Gloria Garcia (age 48) was terminated
Prevailing plaintiffs in employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases can recover attorney’s fees their attorney’s incur in prosecuting those claims. In many instances the attorney’s fees sought can exceed the monetary relief the plaintiff obtains and can act as a serious impediment to prompt settlement.
Since most of these cases are done on a contingency
Yesterday I hosted a webinar on Investigating Employee Complaints in the 21st Century: Comprehensive Investigations of Complaints of Discrimination, Harassment and Misconduct. There was a great turnout and many good questions posed from the participants. If you missed the presentation, you can watch the archive here.
I am actively seeking suggestions for interesting human resource or
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimouslyy held that the ministerial exception bars a federal employment discrimination suit brought by a teacher challenging her church-employer’s decision to terminate her employment. While this holding is limited to religious affiliated employers, it firmly establishes the ministerial exception as a bar to certain employment discrimination claims against religious organizations.
On January 25, 2012, at 12:00 p.m. I’ll be speaking on a panel titled "Title VII Litigation: Persistent Evidentiary Challenges." The webinar will cover common evidentiary issues that employment lawyers who try discrimination, retaliation and harassment claims face including:
Last week I was in Seattle attending the ABA’s 5th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference. While there have been a number of interesting and informative sessions, I wanted pass along an interesting demonstration that was done by Dr. Anthony Greenwald to demonstrate implicit bias (i.e., the internal, subconscious stereotypes we all allegedly have from
Last week the Supreme Court of Texas granted a Petition for Review to hear the case of Mission Independent School District v. Garcia. While the petition for review has three issues (issue four was not challenged by the respondent), only one is relevant to private employers. The school district argues for a bright line rule that
Prompt and thorough investigations of complaints of harassment and discrimination can provide solid legal defenses to employee lawsuits. Even where there may not be a technical, legal defense (e.g., supervisory harassment resulting in an adverse employment action), investigating employee complaints of inappropriate behavior can paint the employer in a favorable light and is just a good
This week the Fifth Circuit held that a cause of action exists for hostile work environment under the ADEA –the first such express holding in the Circuit. In Dediol v. Best Chevrolet, the plaintiff filed a hostile work environment and constructive discharge claim against the employer.
During the brief two months of employment, Dediol