Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination based on religion. With respect to religion, 42 USC 2000e(j) requires an employer to “reasonably accommodate” an employee’s beliefs and practices. But while an employer will alway... More »
Shortly before he died, Judge Stephen Reinhardt authored an en banc opinion for the ninth circuit in Rizo v. Yovino. The decision was groundbreaking, holding that employers could not justify salary differentials between men and women on the basis of prior sala... More »
On Saturday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a series of President Trump’s executive orders. Jackson ruled that boosting federal agencies’ firing rights would deny collective bargaining rights for ... More »
In Chicago, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled in favor of sandwich franchise Jimmy John’s, who argued that the company cannot be liable for the FLSA violations of its individual restaurants. Jimmy John’s may control mayonnai... More »
The Editorial Board of the New York Daily News yesterday drew attention to what has been a repeated “pilgrimage” in a stymied search for equal rights and fair treatment: the yearly trip of “some of New York State’s 100,000 field hands to the Capitol” to ask fo... More »
Cornell University violated the National Labor Relations Act in March of 2017, but Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU) will not receive a unionization revote, an independent arbitrator ruled last week. In an email sent twenty-four hours prior to the elect... More »
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan is retiring in June, but continues to escalate worksite enforcement efforts. Homan appears to be delivering on his promise last fall to oversee a four or fivefold rise in rates of workplace immi... More »
Uber whistleblower Susan Fowler announced a groundbreaking bill in the California legislature to end the use of forced arbitration to cover up workplace sexual harassment. AB-3080 would prohibit employers from requiring workers or prospective employees to sign... More »
Arizona teachers began voting on whether to strike on Tuesday afternoon. While Republican Governor Doug Ducey has agreed to a 20% pay raise for teachers by 2020, many teachers have criticized the plan for not including pay raises for support staff and for fai... More »
Today we recognize Equal Pay Day, symbolizing how far into the current year the average woman has to work to earn as much as her male colleagues in the prior year. Thanks to persistent gender wage gaps and gender discrimination, women in Massachusetts still on... More »
The Washington Post reports that Target has agreed to a $3.74 million settlement with black and Latino job applicants who claimed that the company’s criminal background check policy was discriminatory. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund had filed a class action law... More »
The Atlantic reports that the #metoo movement has yet to deliver justice for low-wage workers who are victims of sexual harassment. The piece explains that sexual harassment is rampant in low-wage industries–50% of workers in the restaurant industry repo... More »
May 21st, 2018