By Jourdan Day on The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced the filing window for the newly required Component 2 pay data opens July 15, 2019. Private employers with at least 100 employees are required to submit pay data for calendar years 2017 and 2018 by Sept. 30, 2019. This new requirement is ordered by the court decision … Continue Reading
By Jourdan Day on Pay Data Required by September 30, 2019 Further action has occurred in the National Women’s Law Center v. Office of Management and Budget case, about which we reported here. Employers will need to report 2018 pay data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by September 30, 2019. While it is clear that employers will be required to … Continue Reading
By Jourdan Day on UPDATE – Pay Data Required by September 30, 2019 Further action has occurred in the National Women’s Law Center v. Office of Management and Budget case, about which we reported here. Employers will need to report 2018 pay data to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by September 30, 2019. While it is clear that … Continue Reading
By Charlie Warner on In an opinion issued this week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee) affirmed dismissal of a case alleging same-sex sexual harassment primarily based on the prompt and effective action taken by the employer in response to the plaintiff employee’s complaint. Plaintiff (Hylko) and the alleged harasser (Hemphill) worked … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Now that it is clear that Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States, questions are continuously being asked about how the regime change when he takes office in January of 2017 will impact labor and employment law. Acknowledging that any discussion of Trump’s policies before he takes office on Jan. 20, … Continue Reading
By Leigh Anne Williams on Likely in response to laws recently passed in North Carolina and Mississippi (and being considered in other states, including Ohio), the EEOC has issued a fact sheet regarding bathroom access for transgender employees under federal anti-discrimination law. In the fact sheet, the EEOC takes the position that transgender status is protected under Title VII and, … Continue Reading
By Mike Underwood on We have reported previously on the emerging trends in litigation over website accessibility. Briefly, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires accessibility for disabled persons to places of public accommodation. Increasingly, disabled persons are pursuing litigation or threats of litigation, arguing that a company’s website which provides access to goods and services … Continue Reading
By Leigh Anne Williams on Earlier this week we reported on the EEOC’s new “digital charge” system. The EEOC has issued a press release announcing it will now, on a nationwide basis, share position statements with charging parties. In the past, many EEOC offices would provide a verbal summary of the employer’s position statement to the charging party but would not share … Continue Reading
By Leigh Anne Williams on We are seeing more and more employers receive electronic notice of new EEOC charges through the EEOC’s new “digital charge” system. This system was piloted in certain EEOC districts starting last May. Starting Jan. 1, 2016, all EEOC offices will notify employers via email of new EEOC charges filed against them. However, this last month … Continue Reading
By Mike Underwood on Think for a moment about all of the employment law obligations you face as a Human Resources professional or employment legal counsel. As extensive as those are, there is actually very little that you have to report to the federal or state government on a regular basis about your employment activity. You have very few … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on OFCCP has said that it will issue final rules in May 2016 requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to submit electronic pay data. This rule has been highly controversial since it was first proposed in 2011. Currently there is no obligation for contractors to submit pay data to OFCCP except in the course of an affirmative … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On Wednesday of this week, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously vacated and remanded a 7th Circuit decision that said courts could not review whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) satisfied its conciliation obligations under Title VII. Mach Mining LLC v. EEOC, No. 13-1019 (2015). The review the Court permitted, however, remains limited and courts are … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This week, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a sharply divided 4-3 opinion in Freshwater v. Mt. Vernon City School Dist. Bd. of Edn., Slip Opinion No. 2013-Ohio-5000(Nov. 19, 2013), which held that the Mt. Vernon City School District had “good and just cause” under Ohio Revised Code §3319.16 for terminating a controversial middle school science … Continue Reading
By Brian Hall on As we have previously noted, the EEOC in April 2012 issued enforcement guidance addressing the use of arrest and criminal records in employment decisions under Title VII. Since then, the EEOC has filed two separate lawsuits in South Carolina and Illinois alleging that employer criminal background check policies violated Title VII because they adversely impacted … Continue Reading
By Mike Underwood on Companies covered by federal affirmative action obligations have some major changes for which to prepare. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has issued two new rules which take effect March 24, 2014. The new rules expand the affirmative action requirements for covered veterans and disabled persons. For over 30 years, regulations under the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on After putting employees on the ropes with its decision in Vance v. Ball State University (which we blogged on here), the United States Supreme Court finished employees off with the 5-4 decision in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, No. 12-484 (June 24, 2013). The Justices held a plaintiff making a retaliation claim under Title VII must establish that his or her protected activity was the "but-for" cause of the alleged adverse action by the employer, rather than just a motivating factor.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In Vance v. Ball State University, No. 11-556 (June 24, 2013), the United States Supreme Court held that an employee is a "supervisor" for purposes of vicarious liability under Title VII only if the employee is empowered by the employer to take tangible employment actions, i.e., to effect a "significant change in employment status, such as hiring, firing, failing to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits, against the victim.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on I present on the topic of background checks often, and when it comes to Q&A time, I almost always get the question (or some variation of it): "How does Title VII come into play when an employer has state law requirements regarding criminal background checks?" In Waldon v. Cincinnati Public Schools, No. 1:12-CV-00677 (S.D. Ohio … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Cases involving an equal opportunity harasser are usually entertaining, but Colston v. Cleveland Public Library, (6th Cir. Apr. 15, 2013) is also educational because it demonstrates how an employer can properly get rid of an equal opportunity harasser and defeat discrimination and harassment claims based on the harasser’s conduct at the same time. Plaintiff Mary … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Federal contractors and subcontractors should take notice that, in the last couple of years, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has been pursuing a much more aggressive enforcement and regulatory agenda.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on All too often it seems employers are entirely unaware of the steps they can take to proactively protect themselves from employment litigation. Instead, employers and their attorneys do not address potential issues until litigation has actually been threatened or filed, by which time preventative measures have likely become a moot point.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on A company may discard data, documents or records in the ordinary course of its business. But routine destruction of information that may be relevant to a government investigation or a lawsuit must be suspended and information must be saved as soon as possible after a party has notice that it must preserve evidence. A recent case from the district court for the Southern District of Ohio looks at the events that triggered a bank's duty to save particular data considered relevant by its opponent and the consequences of its failure to stop the routine purging of that data on a timely basis.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Michigan district court's ruling in Keith v. County of Oakland, finding a deaf applicant's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") may have been violated when Oakland County ("the County") revoked its job offer to hire him as a lifeguard.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a recent decision in Chenzira v. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati held that sincerely held beliefs in veganism could plausibly be considered religious beliefs protected against religious discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Ohio state law.… Continue Reading