The Department of Labor (DOL) has a tool available on its website for employers that want to make sure their policies and practices don’t discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities. The online Disability Nondiscrimination Law Advisor, available at www.dol.gov/elaws/odep.htm, helps employers determine which federal disability nondiscrimination laws apply to their business, including:

• Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA);

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Arizona’s new immigration law, Senate Bill (SB) 1070, authorizes state and local law enforcement officials to inquire into the immigration status of any person “where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States.” The law regulates aliens directly, not by means of the employer-employee relationship. Nevertheless, many people believe that the new law is preventing employers from hiring Hispanic workers for fear of workplace disruption.

The Problem

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President Barack Obama recently issued a memo directing federal agencies to extend benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of federal employees to the extent permitted by current law. The memo begins:

For far too long, many of our Government’s hard-working, dedicated LGBT employees have been denied equal access to the basic rights and benefits their colleagues enjoy. This kind of systemic inequality undermines the health, well-being, and security not just of our Federal workforce, but also of their families and communities.

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Administaff, Inc., a nationwide company that provides full-service HR services to small and medium-size businesses, has agreed to pay $115,000 and furnish substantial remedial relief to settle a religious harassment lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Baltimore.

According to the EEOC’s suit, Texas-based Administaff and Conn-x, LLC, a Florida-based cable service provider, violated federal law by engaging in religious discrimination against two employees at Conn-x’s Edgewood office. The agency alleged that two Conn-x employees, who are brothers, were called “dirty Jew[s],” “dumb Jew[s],”and other anti-Semitic slurs by managers and coworkers.

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