by Tara Martens Miller

Freedom to believe and practice your own religion is a strongly held American value as well as a right recognized by  the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and most state organizations charged with receiving and investigating claims of discrimination. Sometimes, however, an employee’s expression of religious beliefs in the workplace can be disruptive―especially if the employee’s beliefs clash with the beliefs of her coworkers. When does an employer’s attempt to control religious expression become discriminatory? And how does a company reconcile its efforts to promote workplace diversity with an employee’s right to push back against “diversity” he opposes?

Basic protections under the law

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The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs has released “Reducing Child Labor and Forced Labor: A Toolkit for Responsible Businesses,” the first guide developed by the U.S. government to help businesses combat child labor and forced labor in their global supply chains. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), worldwide there are 215 million children in child labor, with 115 million performing hazardous work. It also estimates that 21 million people are in forced labor, six million of them children.

Using the DOL’s toolkit should help employers reduce “the chance that your products—and the raw materials they come from—are manufactured, mined or harvested by children who should be in school, or by workers locked in sweatshops or forced into work through false promises or threats.” read more…

by Edward Sisson

The acting deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Administrator’s Interpretation (AI) No. 2013-1 on January 14 to explain the WHD’s position on who is considered a son or daughter under Section 101(12) of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The administrator concluded that parents who are eligible employees of covered employers are entitled to take FMLA leave to care for an adult child who is disabled or has a serious health condition without regard to the child’s age when the disability began.

FMLA refresher

Under the FMLA, an eligible employee of a covered employer is entitled to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid job-protected leave during a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons. One of the specified reasons is to care for a son or daughter who is disabled or has a serious health condition.

The FMLA military caregiver provision entitles an eligible employee who is a spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness incurred or aggravated in the line of duty to take up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for the servicemember. read more…

by Judith E. Kramer

On January 28, a federal court ruled in favor of Kaplan Higher Learning Education Corp. and Kaplan University in a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC had alleged that Kaplan’s use of credit history reports in making hiring decisions violated certain provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because the practice has a disparate impact on black applicants.

Background

The defendant in this case was a group of educational institutions. As the court noted, educational institutions operate in a highly regulated industry. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) provides financial aid to many students enrolled at Kaplan University and Kaplan Higher Learning Education and requires its participants to have in place quality controls that limit access to student and parent information. read more…

by Cynthia Ozger-Pascu 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is continuing its aggressive pursuit of sexual harassment and discrimination claims through systemic enforcement actions.

EEOC settles long-standing sexual harassment suit

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Youth@Work program is designed to educate working-age young people about their rights and responsibilities in the workplace and how they can protect themselves against illegal discrimination and harassment in the workplace. The program consists of three main components:  the Youth@Work web site, free outreach events, and partnerships with business leaders, human resource groups, and industry trade associations.

The Youth@Work website explains the different types of job discrimination that young workers may encounter and suggests strategies they can use to prevent, and, if necessary, respond to such discrimination. The site includes an interactive tool called “Challenge Yourself!” that provides an opportunity for young workers to test their knowledge by analyzing sample job discrimination scenarios. The site, created with the assistance of EEOC student interns, also includes examples of EEOC cases filed on behalf of of young workers. read more…

by Elaine Young

President Barack Obama recently announced a new immigration enforcement policy that opens new doors to thousands of immigrant youths. An estimated 800,000 young people have graduated from American high schools but aren’t authorized to work in the United States because they are here unlawfully. The new policy gives them a degree of legal protection from deportation and will authorize employment.

Requirements for “deferred action” status

Under the policy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not initiate deportation proceedings against any undocumented youth who meets all of the following five criteria: read more…

By Diane M. Pietraszewski

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued two pieces of revised guidance focusing on the employment rights of disabled veterans under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). One of the documents, titled “Veterans and the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Guide for Employers,” is directed at employers. The other document ― “Understanding Your Employment Rights Under the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Guide for Wounded Veterans” ― is designed to assist veterans.

The guidance reflects changes to the law as a result of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), which makes it more likely than not that certain service-connected disabilities ― such as deafness, blindness, missing limbs, major depressive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder ― may be considered disabilities under the ADA. read more…

By Richard Lehr

During the past several years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has increased its focus on employers’ use of background check information, particularly arrest and conviction records. On April 25, the EEOC issued its revised “Enforcement Guidance on Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” The original guidance was issued in 1987 and revised in 1990.

The commission has asserted for several years that arrest and conviction records have a discriminatory impact on African American and Hispanic applicants. Perhaps a culmination of the EEOC’s initiative occurred a month ago with a settlement of more than $3 million with PepsiCo. In that case, discrimination was alleged in the application process based on the use of criminal background information in selecting African American applicants. read more…

By Heather Knox

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that interprets and enforces employment discrimination laws, recently considered whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects transgender employees from workplace discrimination. The case involved an employee who claimed she wasn’t hired by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to work at a crime lab, despite being otherwise qualified for the job, after she revealed that she was in the process of transitioning from male to female. Let’s take a closer look at the case.

Facts

Mia Macy, a transgender woman, was working as a police detective in Arizona when she decided to relocate to California in December 2010 for family reasons. At the time, she hadn’t yet transitioned from male to female and was still known as a man. When she learned of an open position in an ATF crime lab for which she was qualified, she applied for the job. She was interviewed over the telephone, and the discussion covered her experience, credentials, salary, and benefits. The agency told her the job would be hers so long as she passed the required background check. read more…