The North Carolina legislature added nondiscrimination and nonretaliation protections for employees who serve in the North Carolina Wing – Civil Air Patrol. Effective December 1, 2023, it is unlawful for any employer to discriminate or retaliate against any employee who is a member of the NC Wing Civil Air Patrol based on membership status or
discrimination
Updates to EEOC COVID-19 Guidance Reminds Employers of General Anti-Retaliation Protections for Employees
The EEOC has recently updated its What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws to include a section on Retaliation and Interference.
The update to EEOC’s guidance reviews anti-retaliation protections under the federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title…
Arizona Expands Employment Discrimination Laws to Prohibit Pregnancy Discrimination
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed into law a bill that prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on pregnancy or childbirth.
Amending the Arizona Civil Rights Act, the bill (House Bill 2045) defines discrimination “because of sex” and “on the basis of sex” to include discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical…
Can an Employer Refuse to Hire an Employee Because of the Employee’s Risk of Developing a Disability?
The Seventh Circuit joins the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits in holding that such a refusal would not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. In Shell v. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company, No. 19-1030, the appellate court addressed the certified question “whether the ADA’s regarded-as provision encompasses conduct motivated by the likelihood that…
Can You Be “Regarded as” Disabled Based on a Potential Future Disability?
This certainly sounds futuristic. (Pun intended.) Still, in a case just decided by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, EEOC v. STME, LLC, the EEOC espoused precisely this position.
The EEOC sued STME for disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act on behalf of Kimberly Lowe, a former STME massage therapist. Lowe was…
Kentucky Adopts Pregnant Workers Act
Last week Governor Bevin signed Senate Bill 18, the Kentucky Pregnant Workers Act. The Act amends the Kentucky Civil Rights Act (KCRA) and applies to employers with 15 or more employees within the state in each of twenty (20) or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, as well as any agent…
New York Federal Court Finds Alcoholism Is “Impairment,” Not Necessarily A Disability, Under the ADA
It seems axiomatic that a disability discrimination claim requires the plaintiff to suffer from a disability. In Johnson v. N.Y. State Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Servs., No. 16-cv-9769 (RJS) (S.D.N.Y., March 13, 2018), a judge in the Southern District of New York dismissed a pro se plaintiff’s complaint for failure to allege…
Donations Not Accepted – ADA Does Not Require Continued Use of Leave Donation Program
Many employers have programs allowing employees to donate their own time off to another employee with serious medical or family issues. A dilemma often faced by employers with these policies is whether continued use of such donated time means the employee is not performing the essential function of attendance. On the one hand, the employee…
EEOC’s Record Jury Verdict of $240 Million in ADA Turkey Farm Case Reduced to $1.6 Million
In what the EEOC has called “one of its finest moments” in its effort to “combat employment discrimination,” a jury awarded $240 million to 32 individuals in an ADA case brought by the EEOC. It was the EEOC’s largest jury verdict ever. The award for compensatory and punitive damages amounted to $7.5 million per individual.…
Housing Complex Designed For, Occupied By, Those With Hearing Impairments Discriminates Against Those Without Hearing Impairments
A federally subsidized housing complex designed by a deaf architect, with such features as video phones, lights that flash when the phone or doorbell rings, and wiring that sends announcements to residents’ hearing aids, is being accused by the federal government of discrimination against those who are not deaf, according to a New York Times…