Employment Blog

Supreme Court Considers Age Discrimination Burdens of Proof

The Supreme Court was busy with two employment cases yesterday.  We reported below on the employee benefits case.  The Court also heard arguments in Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, which addresses the burdens of proof to be applied in age discrimination cases.  Here is a New York Times article about the case.  Briefs and documents about the case can be found here.

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Court Permits “Public Policy” Constructive Discharge Claim Based on Sexual Harassment

Candace Wahl worked for a few months as a dental assistant in a small dental clinic.  A dentist who co-owned the clinic commented about her breasts and the bodies of other employees and female patients, made sexual explicit comments about his sex life, and at one point allegedly masturbated while the two of them were in a darkroom.  After the darkroom incident, Wahl worked the rest of the week and

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Male Police Officer Wins $400,000 in Sex Harassment Case

  Out of Springfield, Massachusetts comes this article about a sexual harassment case that resulted in a $400,000 verdict for a male police officer.  According to the published reports, John Brock’s image was superimposed over a woman in a bikini and posted at police headquarters.  Here are some other recent verdicts in employment cases: $2.1 million verdict in a so-called “reverse discrimination” case. The plaintiff alleged that she was passed

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EEOC Finds Against University of Washington in Age Discrimination Case

Here is an article about an interesting age discrimination case against the University of Washington.  The case was filed by Warren Guntheroth, an 80 year old doctor at the UW Medical Center.  In 2004, the UW paid $35 million for overbilling Medicare and Medicaid.  At the time, Guntheroth blamed the dean of the medical school.  He now claims that the school retaliated against him by questioning his competence, hiring people

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$317,000 Race Discrimination Verdict for Farm Workers

A jury in Yakima, Washington has awarded a verdict of $317,000 for farm workers who claimed they were discriminated against based on race.  The farm workers contended that they were not hired, or they were fired and replaced, in favor of workers brought from Thailand under the federal H-2A guest-worker program in 2004.  An article about the case appears here. 

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Washington Court Allows Wrongful Discharge Claim by Women’s Basketball Coach

Trev Kiser was the women’s basketball coach at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington.  Kisar complained to school officials about a pattern of inequality between the men’s and women’s basketball programs, such as in the quality of the officiating assigned to women’s games, the team budgets, and travel accommodations, and that the college’s athletic director was hostile toward the women’s team.  Kisar testified that, after he complained about the inequity in

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Court: Subjective Hiring Process Permitted Racial Bias

A recent case in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrates how discretionary decision-making can lead to employment discrimination claims.  David Dunlap sued his employer for race discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Dunlap had 20 years of experience as a boilermaker and boilermaker foreman.  He was one of 21 people who interviewed for 10 boilermaker positions.  Interviews were conducted by a panel comprised of

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4,000 Nurses On Strike in San Francisco

Nurses at eight Sutter Health Hospitals in the Bay Area started a 10-day strike on Friday, their third walk-out in six months.  The nurses and the hospitals are at loggerheads in negotiations over healthcare, pensions, meal and break periods, and safe lifting policies.  The hospitals have brought in replacement nurses from other states.  Some articles about the dispute appear here, here, here and here. 

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Aging Workforce Likely To Increase Age Discrimination Claims and Change Retirement Plans

Within 20 years, nearly 20% of Americans, 71 million people, will be age 65 or older.  Thanks to the baby boomers, America is getting older and doing so at a rapid rate.  Recently, a federal task force published a report addressing the aging of the American workforce.  The task force was comprised of representatives from the Departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Labor, Transportation, and Treasury; the Equal

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Sexism at Work

Lis Wiehl is an author, TV Legal Analyst, and law professor who started her career at my favorite former law firm in Seattle. Wiehl says that recent court decisions are worrisome for supporters of women’s rights in the workplace and that sexism still exists.  She cites the following as examples: (1) a $1 million verdict in a sexual harassment case that was overturned by an appellate court; (2) a Supreme Court

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$2 Million Verdict in Retaliation Case

Earlier this week, a jury in Connecticut returned a $2 million verdict for the plaintiff in a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.  A school principal argued that she was retaliated against after reporting that two teachers had abused minority students.  What is interesting about the case is the size of the verdict in light of the relatively minor adverse employment action taken by the employer.  The plaintiff was placed on administrative

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$4.4 Million Discrimination Verdict Set Aside by Washington Court

In November 2007, a jury in Seattle awarded $4.4 million to Melissa Sheffield in a discrimination lawsuit.  Sheffield sued her former employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., for retaliation after she complained of sexual orientation harassment, and she also claimed that Goodyear failed to reasonably accommodate a disability.  Articles about the case can be read here, here, and here. The jury award included $318,344 in lost pay and benefits, $40,622

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Court Allows Lawsuit for Coworker Retaliation

In a recent case, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Title VII permits claims against an employer for acts of retaliation by coworkers.  According to the court, an employer will be liable for a coworker’s actions if: (1) the coworkers’ retaliatory conduct is sufficiently severe so as to dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination; (2) supervisors or members of management have actual

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Sharp Increase in Employment Discrimination Cases

According to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), employment discrimination charges rose 9% in 2007, the largest increase in 15 years.  The increases occurred in nearly every category and, for the first time, retaliation claims have outnumbered sex-based charges.  The EEOC press release summarizes the data by type of discrimination claim and all charge statistics are reported here. 

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Jury Verdict: $1.6 Million for Accused Harassers

An article from the LA Times (here) discusses a painful case against the Los Angeles City Fire Department. The case arises out of a hazing incident in which a black firefighter, Tennie Pierce, had his dinner laced with dog food.  It is reported that the city settled with Pierce for $1.5 million after spending $1.3 million in legal fees on his case.  Now, in another case, the alleged harassers argued

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"Associational Discrimination" Claim For Termination Caused By Spouse’s Medical Costs

A recent decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals addresses “association discrimination” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) in the context of medical insurance expenses.  The plaintiff in the case contended that she was fired because of her husband’s high medical bills.  The company was self-insured for the first $250,000 of annual covered medical costs, and the medical bills for the plaintiff’s husband had been over $316,000 in

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New EEOC Guidance on Disabled Veterans

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued new guidance on employment of veterans with service-connected disabilities.   The EEOC’s guide for employers is here and the guide for veterans is here.  The new guidance explains (1) how protections for veterans with service-connected disabilities differ under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), and (2) how the ADA applies to recruiting, hiring,

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Lowe's Store in Longview, Washington Sued for Sexual Harassment

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against a Lowe’s store in Longview, Washington for sex discrimination and sexual harassment.  There is an article about the case here.  According to the media reports, two heterosexual employees allege that they were repeatedly called "gay" by store managers, and a female employee alleges that a store manager told her she could advance in the company if she had

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U.S. Supreme Court: Employment Discrimination Evidence Must Be Determined by Trial Courts

The U.S. Supreme Court is busy with an unusually large number of employment cases this term, and today the Court issued its opinion in one closely watched case.  By many accounts, the decision is somewhat of a letdown for employment attorneys because the Supreme Court did not really decide much of anything, and certainly did not change the law or the way that employment discrimination cases will be litigated.  The

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Sexual Harassment Case Results in $5.3 Million Verdict

Today a federal court jury in Florida awarded a sexual harassment plaintiff $5.4 Million.  The case was filed by a woman who alleged the defendant touched her and offered her money for sex, among other things.  An article about the case appears here.  The defendant in the case, Florida real estate mogul David Siegel, no doubt can afford to pay the verdict from his estimated $1.8 Billion net worth. 

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Racial Slurs Result in $500,000 Verdict

Check out this article about a case that resulted in a $500,000 verdict in a discrimination case against a company in Alabama.  The verdict was the result of the company’s failure to stop the use of racial slurs at work and the discharge of an employee after he refused to sign an agreement to arbitrate his claims. 

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