On January 28, 2020, the Southern District of New York allowed a hostile work environment claim to proceed based upon allegations of racial slurs, demeaning comments, and relegation of Hispanic to the least favorable job assignments and shifts. Ramirez v. NYP Holdings, Inc. The Court permitted this claim to proceed despite dismissing other claims

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the American with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) does not protect an applicant who later may become impaired. In this instance, a worker applied for a position that would have required him to perform “safety-sensitive” tasks. After he was extended a conditional offer of employment, Plaintiff was required

The general rule is that a federal discrimination claim should be dismissed unless a timely charge was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Whether that statutory requirement was jurisdictional (and could not be waived) or procedural (and must be presented to the Court in a timely manner or the defense is waived) was

This past year has been filled with disturbing reports of alleged sexual assault and sexual harassment by prominent figures in business, politics, and even the judiciary.  Not surprisingly, the number of EEOC sexual harassment filings has increased. In data published in October, the EEOC reported, that in 2018, it filed 50% more lawsuits regarding harassment

The Sixth Circuit recently held, in Doe v. Baum, that a public university violated the Due Process Clause and Title IX when it did not allow a student accused of sexual misconduct to conduct a cross-examination of the claimant during university-run proceedings. The Court ruled that since the public university had to “choose between competing

The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) has just issued an Opinion Letter concluding that organ-donation surgery can qualify as a “serious health condition” under the FMLA.  Specifically, the Opinion Letter affirmatively answered whether an employee may use FMLA leave for post-operative treatment where the employee donates an organ, even when the donor is in

With the increased attention being paid to the #MeToo movement and the existence of federal law that provides capped remedies and permits mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment claims,, states and cities are enacting legislation to create greater legal rights for sexual harassment claimants  For example, New York recently enacted legislation that, among other things, prohibits

Under the theory of “disparate impact,” even facially neutral policies can result in claims of discrimination when a “protected group” suffers a statistical disadvantage vis a vis another group (i.e., the rule of thumb is a twenty-percent disadvantage).  For example, in Andreana v. Virginia Beach City of Public Schools, the United States District Court

In Bailey v. Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., No. 17-2158 (April 23, 2018), the 11th Circuit found that an employer’s decision to terminate an employee on the day she returned from maternity leave was not discriminatory because during her leave, the employer discovered deficiencies in performance and falsifications in her employment application.  The decision in