Pregnancy Discrimination Claims On The Rise

Posted on February 16, 2012 by MGrabell

Even with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Family Medical Leave Act and individual state statutes on the books, the number of pregnancy discrimination charges filed with the EEOC has increased as much as 35% in the past 10 years. It has been reported that women make up 47% of the workforce and two-thirds of those working women solely support or help support the household financially, making it imperative that they not lose their jobs or income because of pregnancy.

On Wednesday this week, an expert panel told the EEOC that there needs to be greater enforcement efforts and clearer guidance from the Agency in order to curb the number of pregnancy discrimination claims. Evidently, managers and supervisors and other decision makers are not aware of, or simply choose to ignore, the protections for pregnant women.

To reduce liability, employers have to have clear and consistent employment and hiring policies in place that protect the rights of pregnant women and adhere to federal and state laws.

More important….employers need to frequently and repeatedly train their management staff on these issues.

Contact me to learn how ERS can customize affordable training seminars that meet your specific needs and train your staff on how best to avoid an employee claim.

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EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum at NYSBA

Posted on February 1, 2012 by MGrabell

My legal update last week advised of the striking number of recent EEOC cases alleging ADA violations. Last week, EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum addressed this issue and told lawyers at the New York State Bar Association that there were simple measures their clients could take to prevent action by the agency.

Feldblum cautioned against one-size-fits-all attendance policies, medical questionnaires that are unrelated to the job at hand and rescinding job offers strictly on the basis of disability.

Most important, Feldblum stated that “All these things should be basic disability rights training…a little ounce of prevention would really be worthwhile.”  Sound familiar?

ERS can customize affordable training seminars that meet your specific needs and train your staff on how best to avoid an employee claim.

The UNIQUE perspective of ERS will reduce your risk of an employee claim.

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EEOC Enforcement of ADA

Posted on January 26, 2012 by MGrabell

The EEOC obtained a record $455.6 million in relief for workers in fiscal year 2011 and the agency’s enforcement of the Americans With Disabilities Act produced the highest increase in monetary relief from FY 2010…more than Title VII, the ADEA, or the Equal Pay Act.

While retaliation under all of the statutes is still the most common charge (37.4% of all charges allege retaliation), the administrative relief obtained for disability discrimination charges increased 36%, from $76.1 million in FY 2010 to $103.4 million in FY 2011.

From a plaintiff’s attorneys perspective, disability and retaliation claims share something in common: there are so many variables involved that a company’s managers must be aware of in order to avoid a claim. And, the more variables means the more “targets” for an attorney to shoot at to find the weakness. Those weaknesses will be magnified in a subsequent litigation which will likely cost valuable time and money.

Contact me to discuss how ERS can help train your management on disability, retaliation, and other, legal issues to keep you IN business and OUT of court. ERS attorneys identify and discuss all of the variables to eliminate the weaknesses.

The UNIQUE perspective of ERS will reduce your risk of an employee claim.

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Criminal Background Checks for Potential Hires

Posted on January 18, 2012 by MGrabell

Does your company do criminal background checks on potential hires? If so, be careful….

Pepsi Beverages Co. agreed to pay $3.13 million to resolve claims that the company’s criminal background check policy for potential employees constituted racial discrimination.

Under Pepsi’s policy, which they have subsequently changed, job applicants who were previously arrested were denied employment even if they were not convicted of any crime.

As many of you know from my seminars, an employer’s use of arrest and conviction records to weed out applicants can be a violation of Title VII when it is not relevant for the job and unfairly discriminates against a particular race or ethnicity.

In the Pepsi case, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the criminal background check policy unfairly placed restrictions on African American job applicants.

Contact me to discuss how ERS can help train your management and/or hiring staff on these, and other, legal issues to keep you IN business and OUT of court.

The UNIQUE perspective of ERS will reduce your risk of an employee claim.

Posted in EEOC, Hiring/Firing, Law, Training | Leave a comment

Tips for Treating Older Employees

Posted on December 13, 2011 by MGrabell

As a former Plaintiff’s employment attorney, I regularly counsel companies on how to treat older employees to avoid a lawsuit if the employee believes he/she has been mistreated. Age discrimination cases have the highest success rate in part because older plaintiffs, if presented properly to a jury, garner the most sympathy. And, many judges, who make rulings on legal matters, are not right out of law school. In other words, judges are likely to be close in age to the plaintiff.

Recent case in point: A California jury awarded six workers from Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. $18.3 million in damages. The plaintiffs claimed that the company discriminated against older workers by assigning them more difficult tasks to make them resign and/or disciplining older workers for frivolous or pretextual reasons.

TIPS on treatment of older employees:  (1) Continue to set clear and objective performance goals and conduct appraisals; (2) Treat them as if they have years remaining on the payroll – don’t exclude them from promotion consideration;  (3) Document the performance with solid, objective examples of poor or declining performance; (4) Train management staff on all aspects of relevant anti-discrimination laws

Contact me to discuss how ERS can help train your management and/or hiring staff on these, and other, legal issues to keep you IN business and OUT of court.

The UNIQUE perspective of ERS will reduce your risk of an employee claim.

Posted in Hiring/Firing, Law, Training | Leave a comment