The news reports are everywhere recently. Sexual harassment in the workplace is problem affecting every industry and employees of every level from CEOs to hourly employees. The good news is that, with all of the recent media coverage, sexual harassment in the workplace has finally been exposed for the true problem that it is. The [...]
WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO Make sure your harassment policy is up to date and has been recently communicated to employees. Conduct harassment training for management if you haven’t done so within the past year. We recommend that the training be live and interactive if possible, or computer-based and interactive if live training is not possible. [...]
Many companies hand out sexual harassment policies to employees upon their hire which state the company has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment. The policy lists certain prohibited behaviors and encourages individuals to bring complaints of inappropriate behavior to upper management. However, is the company sexual harassment policy worth the paper it is written on? [...]
State and federal laws currently prohibit discrimination of an employee based on pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions during pregnancy. On March 23, 2010, President Obama expanded protections for nursing mothers, when he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. One of the provisions of the Act is an amendment to the [...]
Important information for employers and employees regarding internal workplace investigations Recent guidance from EEOC and NLRB suggests that it may be a violation of law telling employees to refrain from discussing internal investigations. The EEOC recently took issue with an employer who took the typical approach. In a letter to the employer, the EEOC stated: [...]
1. What is the difference between retaliation and unlawful retaliation? Many people are surprised to learn that every form of retaliation in the workplace is not actionable. In its most general terms, unlawful retaliation occurs when an employer punishes an employee for engaging in “legally protected activity” or “opposing unlawful conduct.” While this language [...]
In this difficult economy, with jobs as scarce as they are, most of us are relieved just to be employed. But the fact is that sometimes even hard working people find themselves in unworkable employment situations. Whatever the reason, whether it is a difficult supervisor, medical problems, discrimination in the workplace (employment discrimination), or some [...]