The First Circuit Court of Appeals answers this question in her 60-page opinion, upholding a $700,000 judgment against the Providence Rhode Island Fire Department in Franchina v City of Providence. This isn’t just any harassment case. The firefighter-plaintiff is/was a woman and a lesbian. Now, you may remember that Title VII does not explicitly prohibit […]
The Sexual Harassment Scandal: How it Should Impact Employers
Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer. These are just a few celebrity names that we have been hearing lately in connection with sexual misconduct allegations. The list has grown exponentially and it looks like it might still be growing. Are women, children, and employees in general safe from sexual harassment or […]
What We Can Learn from Discrimination Claims Against Uber…
Last week we began focusing on Uber, and its recent legal woes. You can find that post here. I touched on four key areas. Let’s focus on the first one, discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims. While I’ve written about these issues before, apparently there are still enough employers who could stand to learn to appreciate the […]
10.1 Million Reasons Why Anti-Harassment Policies Alone Are Not Enough…
Does your workplace have anti-harassment policies? What about anti-discrimination policies? It probably does. If not it probably should. If ever an employee filed a charge with the EEOC or a state agency or sued, that’s one of the first documents an employer would have to produce. Not being able to do so could be the […]
The EEOC’s Proposed New Enforcement Guidance on Harassment
Last month the EEOC published its proposed new Enforcement Guidance on Harassment. Wait. Didn’t EEOC Commissioners Chai Feldblum and Victoria Lipnic present a Report of the Co-Chairs of the Select Task Force on Harassment in the Workplace (“Harassment Prevention Report”) last year? Yep. I previously posted about that Report here. You may remember from my post that […]