by Stephen D. Hans | Sep 28, 2016 | Employment Discrimination
Business savvy employers figure out how to create workplace diversity and put best practices in place to avoid discrimination claims. Ironically, the type of discrimination that showed the highest percentage of claims was retaliation, according to thebalance.com in a 2016 article. This is ironic because businesses should be busy handling discrimination claims not exacerbating them through retaliation. Fortunately, we can provide you with some guidelines that help you deal effectively with complaints and protect your business. Anti-Discrimination Steps to Take As an employer, you should establish policy, provide training and document your actions. Policy Retaliation. Discrimination. Harassment. These are the three types of workplace behaviors you want to discourage and make unacceptable. You can do this by: Ensuring employees understand the nature of discrimination, harassment and especially retaliation. (Make it clear that retaliation is a form of discrimination.) Encouraging employees to report incidents of discrimination, harassment or retaliation. Offering more than one method to report the incident (if the supervisor is the offender do not make the employee report the incident to the supervisor and risk direct retaliation. Offer an alternative method.). Explaining all the steps taken to handle complaints. Stating the disciplinary action you will take against offenders. Providing an appeals process for employees who report a complaint and are dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint. Training When employees are not aware of the policies or trained in how to apply them, you can still have problems. Train your employees so they understand how to put the policies into practice. The training should be mandatory. Train them to respond to complaints immediately and handle them in a...
by Stephen D. Hans | Aug 17, 2016 | Employment Defense Attorney, Employment Discrimination
Media outlets across the country are addressing controversial laws passed recently in certain states that prohibit transgender individuals from using bathrooms consistent with their identity. New state laws require them to use a restroom consistent with the sexual identity on their birth certificates. New York City has taken its own stand on this issue Employers should take note that NYC is the first city in the nation to launch a campaign that grants people in NYC the right to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity — as opposed to genders indicated on birth certificates. Ads are appearing all over the city in subway cars, bus shelters, phone booths and newspapers along with digital ads across social media. The ads are appearing in multiple languages, including Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Russian and Bengali. They state, “Use the Restroom Consistent with Who You Are” and “Look Past the Pink and Blue.” This restriction on restroom use is a new type of discrimination is loosely described as bathroom discrimination. NY has long been at the forefront against transgender and other discrimination issues NY Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was the first executive in the nation to issue statewide regulations that prohibited transgender discrimination. The regulations went into effect on January 20.2015. New York has long been a champion of human rights and was also the first U.S. state to enact a general anti-discrimination law in 1945. Under New York law, human rights violations can carry penalties and civil fines up to $50,000. If “willful, wanton or malicious” discrimination fines and penalties may go up to $100,000 and have no caps on compensatory...
by Stephen D. Hans | Jul 8, 2016 | Business Attorney, Employment Discrimination
Salient Points about the Carlson-Ailes Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit The media is full of reports about the lawsuit Gretchen Carlson, former Fox anchor woman and television host brought against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Ms. Carlson claims that the chairman of Fox News, Roger Ailes terminated her employment because she refused to go along with his sexual advances. After she complained about being discriminated against as an anchorwoman in the newsroom, she alleges that he demoted her to a less prestigious position, reduced her salary, curtailed her on-air appearances and declined to renew her contract last month. She is seeking compensatory damages for sexual harassment and retaliation. According to The New York Times , Ms. Carlson described Mr. Ailes as a serial sexual harasser and the network as a boy’s club environment. What Makes This Case Stand Out from Other Discrimination Cases What sets this case apart from other cases is the fact that Mr. Ailes holds such a prominent position in the media. He claims the allegations are false, are a retaliatory action for not renewing Ms. Carlson’s contract and called the lawsuit defamatory. Ailes’ corporate boss, Rupert Murdoch supports him in the defense against the allegations. The lawsuit names Mr. Ailes as the sole defendant and not Fox News network. Tactics Being Used in the Case Ms. Carlton’s legal team has employed various strategies in handling the case, notwithstanding the use of the media to do the following: Distribute copies of the complaint to reporters across a variety of disciplines Twitter thanks offered by Ms. Carlson for outpouring support Hashtag: #StandWith Gretchen Prominently post information about the lawsuit...
by Stephen D. Hans | Jun 21, 2016 | Employment Discrimination, HR Guidelines
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), disability discrimination charges filed with the EEOC increased by six percent in 2015, reaching a new high compared with the previous year. Employers should take heed and ensure they understand the accommodations that the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requires of them for disabled employees. New Resource Document for Leave and Disability In an effort to address the ADA issue, the EEOC released a document that outlines the main underlying causes of ADA violations. It discovered that often companies have policies that deny or unlawfully restrict the use of leave as a reasonable accommodation. How the Resource Can Help Your Company Employers and employees frequently have questions about how to deal with leave requests from disabled workers. This resource addresses specific situations so companies can better understand how to apply ADA guidelines. It consolidates ADA guidelines, organizing it into one place. It also addresses and clarifies the following by providing examples: When a leave is a reasonable accommodation How a leave is an interactive process Maximum leave policies “100 percent healed policies” Reassignment Employer hardship issues Amount and length of leave required Frequency of leave Predictability of intermittent leave Impact of leave on employer’s operations and the business’s ability to serve customers and clients in a timely manner You can find this document entitled “Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act” on the EEOC website. Seek Experienced Legal Help for ADA Issues If you face challenges as an employer and have questions about the ADA or how to interact with disabled workers, our attorneys at Stephen Hans & Associates can...
by Stephen D. Hans | May 3, 2016 | Employment Discrimination, Employment Law
Queens New York Employment Defense Firm Employers may believe they are accommodating a disabled employee, but unless you understand the standards demanded by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC), you could end up targeted in a disability discrimination lawsuit. This was the situation in a case brought by the EEOC against Bank of America. The lawsuit resolved with Bank of America settling and paying the disabled employee $30,000. The deaf individual was employed by Bank of America for more than 12 years and worked in the vault of a Las Vegas bank. Ineffective methods, such as writing notes and other communication methods the employee did not understand were used to communicate with him. Part of the settlement included injunctive relief by training the B of A’s accommodations team on the requirements the American Disabilities Act (ADA) demands for deaf employees. For example, reasonable accommodations may include: Telecommunication devices for the deaf (TTYs) Amplified telephones Visual alarms Assistive listening systems Visible accommodations to communicate audible alarms and messages Qualified language interpreter services Some jobs may require having interpreter services available on a regular basis and others may only require it occasionally. It is the employer’s responsibility to make sure deaf employees can communicate effectively whenever communication is necessary. This includes communication at special occasions and meetings, training along with job evaluations and communication about work, discipline or job benefits. The ADA also expects employers to transfer certain job duties to other employees. An example is giving the deaf employee a limited amount of telephone duties or transferring telephone duties entirely to other employees. If you’re concerned about whether you’re in compliance...
by Stephen D. Hans | Mar 1, 2016 | Employment Discrimination, Sexual Harassment
Recently, a sexual harassment case involving a Chicago professor became high profile in the news. While you can view the case from the perspective of the victim and the alleged abuser, there is also the viewpoint of educational institutions to consider. What preventative actions can they take to protect themselves against lawsuits? The New York Times reported that a well-known molecular biologist, who was a professor at the University of Chicago resigned after the university recommended he be fired. The administration based the termination recommendation on violations of the college’s sexual misconduct policy. Professor Jason Lieb allegedly made unwanted sexual advances toward several female graduate students during an off campus retreat attended by graduate students and several faculty members. As a result of the allegations, Lieb resigned. An incident of sexual misconduct also arose when Lieb worked at the University of North Carolina. However, an investigation at that time revealed no evidence to support the claim. When Lieb left the University of North Carolina and Princeton interviewed him for a position, Lieb gave permission for Princeton staff to examine his UNC personnel file. The University of Chicago also examined his UNC personnel file and found no evidence that proved him guilty of the allegation. Consequently, the Chicago department of human genetics voted unanimously to hire him. Weighing the responsibility to protect sexual harassment victims versus false sexual harassment allegations can be difficult. Obviously, background checks are vital for educational institutions when hiring personnel. Also, these types of incidents bring up questions about whether the standards universities currently use to evaluate candidates during the hiring process are adequate. At Stephen...
