The Employment Brief | Employment Law | Kollman & Saucier, P.A.

Moral and Ethical Opposition to Flu Vaccine Not a Religious Belief

Kollman & Saucier

08/17/2016

Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for religious beliefs and practices. Protection covers not only religious beliefs that are traditionally associated with some organized religion, but beliefs that may be new, uncommon, or not even part of an organized church or sect. Courts sometimes are required to sort out whether a particular belief is “religious.” For...

Kollman & Saucier

08/12/2016

Wrongful Discharge

The public debate about the breadth of the Second Amendment remains ongoing and a subject that provokes deeply held passions and beliefs on both sides -- including recent comments on the topic by a certain presidential candidate. Amidst this debate, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held this week that an employee who was terminated for bringing a gun to work may bring a lawsuit for wrongful discharge under Mississippi law. Swindol v. Aurora...

Kollman & Saucier

08/10/2016

Employment Discrimination

One of the bedrock principles of employment law is that discrimination based on protected status (race, national origin, sex, etc.) is illegal under Title VII only if it affects an individual’s “compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment[.]” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). This is often referred to as the adverse action requirement. The adverse action requirement is usually met without difficulty – for example, where an...

Kollman & Saucier

08/06/2016

Employment Discrimination, State Law

This week Massachusetts became the first state to ban employers from asking job applicants about salary history prior to making a job offer. The new law aims to narrow the state’s gender wage gap by making it illegal for employers to: Prohibit discussion about employee wages in the workplace; Screen applicants based on wage or request disclosure of prior wage history; Seek a prospective employee’s salary history from a former employer;...

Kollman & Saucier

08/04/2016

Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination, Virginia Employment Law

According to an article in the Washington Post, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that an employee may create a racially hostile work environment by wearing a hat depicting the "Gasden Flag" (a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase "Don't Tread On Me"). Sheldon D. v. Brennan, 2016 WL 3361228. The Gasden Flag, which gained recent popularity as a symbol of the Tea Party movement, has its origins in the American Revolution, when it was...

Kollman & Saucier

08/01/2016

Employment Discrimination

Around this time last year, I wrote about the Foxx case, an EEOC decision holding that sexual orientation discrimination is a violation of Title VII. The ruling-- only binding on federal agencies-- left us wondering whether federal courts might soon follow suit. "Not yet," said the Seventh Circuit last week in the first appellate decision to address the issue since Foxx. (Hivley v. Ivy Tech Cmty. Coll., No. 15-1720 (7/28/16).) Sexual...

Kollman & Saucier

07/29/2016

Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination

This week, a male laboratory technologist filed a lawsuit under Title VII alleging he was denied a promotion and wrongfully terminated for inadvertent HIPAA violations, because of his sex. Harrell lists the following as evidence of sex discrimination: He applied for a clinical supervisor position, which was ultimate given to a female (less qualified, claims Harrell). Female employees were permitted more travel to off-site locations. As for his...

Kollman & Saucier

07/29/2016

Virginia Employment Law

Many of us who have worked for someone other than themselves have fantasized about walking in to the office one day, handing our boss a letter of resignation, and then walking out the door (with the lyrics of The Who's "I'm Free" playing in our heads). Some of us may have even taken the fantasy one step further and written that letter of resignation, only to leave it in a desk drawer. So what happens when an employee goes so far as to write...

Kollman & Saucier

07/29/2016

Virginia Employment Law

A federal court in Virginia held that an employer is not liable for a female employee's sexual assault by a male co-worker. Applying the doctrine of respondent superior, the Court held that the male employee was not acting within the scope of his employment when the assault occurred. Clehm v. BAE Sys. Ordnance, Inc. , W.D. Va. No. 16-0012 (July 22, 2016). The case arose when BAE employee Carla Clehm alleged that a male co-worker "slammed her...

Kollman & Saucier

07/28/2016

Handbooks/Policies

I always enjoy when I can write about topics or interests in my personal life, that cross into my professional life (see my blog post from the beginning of the year on CrossFit and an FBI male applicant's sex discrimination claim). As an avid coffee drinker (an Americano with cinnamon is my go to), I could not resist the chance to write about Starbucks recently updated and very publicized "relaxed" dress code announced earlier this week: "The...

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Email Updates

Moral and Ethical Opposition to Flu Vaccine Not a Religious Belief

Fifth Circuit Holds That Firing For Having Gun at Work May Be Wrongful Discharge

Denial of Lateral Transfers Not “Adverse Action” Under Title VII

Massachusetts Makes it Illegal to Ask About Salary History Before Job Offer

EEOC Rules That "Don't Tread On Me" Hat Might Be Racially Offensive

Appellate Court Holds That Sexual Orientation Not Covered by Title VII

Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In" Now A Reason For A Sex Discrimination Claim, Ironically

"I Quit" - Well, Not Really ...

Virginia Employer Not Liable for Employee's Sexual Assaults

Starbucks New Dress Code Lets Baristas Get Creative With More Than Just Frappucinos

Email Updates