Category: Litigation Issues

EEOC, Other Federal Agencies Set the Pace for Employers Using AI in the Workplace

It is safe to say that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) went mainstream in 2023. With the widening acceptance of AI, dozens of industries have raced to adopt the technology into various operations at a staggering pace – including adopting AI in human resources (HR) processes in the workplace. But, employers and HR departments should keep pace with federal...

Litigation may be Key in Response to Rising Denials of Employment-Based Visas. What Strategies Should Employers Consider when Hiring or Retaining Noncitizen Professionals?

Litigation may be Key in Response to Rising Denials of Employment-Based Visas. What Strategies Should Employers Consider when Hiring or Retaining Noncitizen Professionals?

Many U.S. employers have recently experienced frustration over legal obstacles to keeping high quality foreign-national employees. These valuable employees have often been with the company since finishing a degree and sometimes even interning with the employer. Other employers experience delays in hiring foreign nationals needed for specialized positions despite the obvious qualifications of the candidate. These employers’ frustrations reflect the...

It May Be A New World For Sexual Harassment, But Many Old Rules Still Apply

It May Be A New World For Sexual Harassment, But Many Old Rules Still Apply

In the weeks since allegations began to surface regarding the sexually predatory behavior of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, sexual harassment allegations (sometimes admitted and sometimes disputed) against powerful, prominent men have been a daily feature of the headlines, involving Oscar-winning actors, sitting and would-be senators, talk show hosts, and numerous other high profile figures. Allegations against the both the current...

Don’t Make a Habit of it, but Sometimes, Ignorance IS Bliss

Don’t Make a Habit of it, but Sometimes, Ignorance IS Bliss

As a general rule, of course, Human Resources Departments and company management want to be – and should be – well-informed about issues in the workplace, including employees unhappy enough to have raised claims of discrimination or harassment. If key people at the company are unaware of such complaints, the employer might leave itself open to charges of sloppiness, indifference,...

Refusal to Transfer an Employee as an Adverse Employment Action; or, How Life Imitates 1950s Movies

Refusal to Transfer an Employee as an Adverse Employment Action; or, How Life Imitates 1950s Movies

In the classic 1955 movie, Mister Roberts, Henry Fonda plays Doug Roberts, a frustrated Naval officer aboard a supply ship in a backwater area of the Pacific during World War II. Roberts desperately seeks a transfer to a combat ship more directly involved in the war, but he is continually – and maliciously – turned down by Captain Morton, portrayed...

Quirky Question #287:  “Cat’s Paw” Claims – How could an employer violate antidiscrimination laws, even though the decision-making manager has no discriminatory bias at all?

Quirky Question #287: “Cat’s Paw” Claims – How could an employer violate antidiscrimination laws, even though the decision-making manager has no discriminatory bias at all?

Question: We just went through a five-person layoff, and one of the individuals laid off (an African American) has hired a lawyer and is threatening to sue for racial discrimination. I have enormous confidence in the fairness of the individual manager making the layoff selections, and those selections were based on years of performance ratings.  However, the lawyer hired by our...

Quirky Question  #285: Potholes on the Ethical “High Road”

Quirky Question #285: Potholes on the Ethical “High Road”

Question:  We learned that some of our employees may have been engaging in unethical, and perhaps even illegal, behavior.  We don’t tolerate this, so we hired a law firm to conduct an investigation, and based on the results of that investigation, we terminated the employees.  The terminated employees were high-profile employees, and we told some people why they were fired. ...

Quirky Question #284: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, can you still unlawfully retaliate against it?

Quirky Question #284: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, can you still unlawfully retaliate against it?

Question: One of our male supervisors wants to fire a female employee who complained that he was sexually harassing her. The harassment allegations appear to have some substance: he asked her for pictures of herself in a bikini; told her to “stay off [her] knees,” which she viewed as sexual innuendo; and told her that her regulation length shorts were...

Quirky Question #283: They Stole Our Stuff, Can We Sue?

Question: My company recently terminated an employee, and we are very worried she accessed her email inappropriately in the days before she was fired. The timing of it all is … well, quirky. Here’s what happened: The employee’s manager met with her on a Friday and informed her that her performance was not acceptable, even after several earlier warnings to...

Quirky Question #281: Deploying the DTSA

Question: We believe our former employee recently stole some of our trade secrets and went to a competitor.  Can we rely on the Defend Trade Secrets Act to bring suit in federal court?