People from around the world are coming to the United States in search of jobs and that influx of diversity provides employers with new talents and perspectives that richly enhance their workforce. At the same time, employers must recognize the different languages, cultures, and religions in the workplace and learn how to...
HR professionals are all too familiar with the McDonnell-Douglas burden-shifting standard for establishing discrimination from circumstantial evidence. Under the standard, an employee presents a prima facie (minimally sufficient) case that he belongs to a protected class and suffered an adverse action. The employer then presents a legitimate...
Employers covered under the federal antidiscrimination laws have to deal with either their local or state discrimination agency and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) when a charge of discrimination is filed against them. While those interactions are often seamless and conflict-free, they sometimes take a different path. The 4th...
An acting deputy special counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division, recently issued a technical assistance letter explaining that during an internal I-9 audit, a company shouldn't request documents that an employee didn't present when he originally completed his Form I-9 or ask for better photocopies of the documents...
In February, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued a decision that will likely have significant consequences for supervisors and employers in Hawaii. The ruling makes it more difficult for employees to bring claims for alleged discrimination and retaliation directly against their supervisors. However, it will now be easier for employees to prevail in a...
Under state and federal law, employers may not consider an employee's national origin when making employment decisions. But will a discrimination claim stand if the executive responsible for the employment decision believed in good faith that the terminated employee's performance failings supported the discharge, even if he was wrong? Read on to...
By now, most employers have faced situations in which an employee used a false Social Security number (SSN). Such a discovery usually results in an employee's discharge or resignation. A lawsuit filed on December 9, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of an unsuccessful Latino applicant illustrates a...
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, whose decisions apply to all New Mexico employers, recently found no discrimination had occurred in a case in which an employer fired an employee based on a good-faith belief that he had engaged in misconduct, including dishonesty and rude behavior.
Facts
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED)...
The French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine told a story about a monkey who persuaded a cat to steal chestnuts from a fire. The result: The cat burned its paw, and the monkey ate the chestnuts. The moral of the story: Don't let someone else use you to achieve their own improper goals.
Recently, a former government employee advanced a novel "cat's-...
As we all know, the ultimate decision to fire an employee isn't always made in response to a specific event or a discrete issue. More often than not, an employer's decision to part ways with an undesirable employee will be based on the culmination of multiple factors or a series of events. For instance, an underperforming employee may also be a...
