Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit determined that breastfeeding is a related medical condition to birth, and different treatment based on an employee’s breastfeeding is prohibited under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”). In Hicks v. City of Tuscaloosa, 870 F.3d 1253 (11th Cir. 2017), the plaintiff was a police officer who…
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The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc., No. 15-3754, 2017 WL 4160849 (7th Cir. Sept. 20, 2017) that the ADA does not require employers to accommodate employees by granting them leave well beyond the employee’s leave entitlement under the FMLA. The Court addressed what amount of leave constitutes…
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An Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel held that a “gender non-conformity claim is not ‘just another way to claim discrimination based on sexual orientation,’” but is instead a “separate, distinct avenue for relief under Title VII.” The majority opinion explained that Title VII recognizes discrimination based on a failure to conform to a gender…
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The United Parcel Service (“UPS”) recently agreed to pay $2 million to settle the claims of approximately 90 disabled employees. Approximately 70 employees were parties to a lawsuit filed by the EEOC and the remaining 20 had pending administrative Charges. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Illinois, alleged that UPS discriminated against…
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Since November 2016, a nationwide injunction has prevented the Obama Administration’s new overtime rule for white collar workers from going into effect. The Obama-era rule, which increase the minimum annual salary required to support exempt status from $23,660.00 to $47,476.00, was poised to convert millions of employees from exempt to non-exempt from the FLSA’s overtime…
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A recent decision issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employer may defend a claim under the Equal Pay Act by proving that its pay structure was based on employees’ prior salaries, so long as this structure was reasonable and effectuated a business policy. This decision parts ways with other Circuits…
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The National Employment Law Project (“NELP”) partnered with several other organizations to spearhead a grassroots movement to encourage employers to change their policies to consider the qualification of job applicants without consideration of their criminal history. Prior to the efforts of NELP, it was commonplace for an employer to ask a job applicant whether the…
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In early April, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the first Federal Circuit Court to hold that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination and, therefore, prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”). The Seventh Circuit’s decision sides…
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A recent decision issued by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals provides support for employers seeking to avoid broad and seemingly irrelevant Requests for Information by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). While an employer’s response to Requests for Information is usually an avenue to support its defenses, in the rare instance of overreaching or…
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President Donald Trump appointed Victoria Lipnic (“Ms. Lipnic”) as the new Chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). Ms. Lipnic is not new to the EEOC. She has been an EEOC Commissioner since 2010 and was a President Obama appointee. She has assured the employment community that she will not undo the EEOC’s “pro-employee”…
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