Happy birthday Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC turns 50 today. While the agency and I have not always seen eye-to-eye on how it enforces our nation’s civil rights laws, we do agree on why it was founded—because all people are created equal and should enjoy the right to an equal workplace. These past few weeks—with the mass shooting in an African-American church and hateful protests over LGBT rights—serve as a stark reminder that while we have traveled a long way in the past 50 years, we still have a long way to go to achieve true equality.
And now, a birthday song.Here’s the rest of what I read this week:
Discrimination
- Touching in the “Crotch Area” Only A Few Times Doesn’t Create a Hostile Work Environment — via The Employment Brief
- Fourth Circuit Affirms EEOC’s Resounding Summary Judgment Defeat in ADA Case — via Workplace Class Action Litigation
- That White Guy Lost — via Phil Miles’s Lawffice Space
- Transgender Experiences in the Workplace — via Workplace Prof Blog
- Update your job descriptions. Because, Americans with Disabilities Act. — via Eric Meyers Employer Handbook Blog
- Disparate-impact claims survive challenge: In Plain English — via SCOTUSblog
Social Media & Workplace Technology
- Google Is Sorry That Its New App Is Racist — via Boy Genius Report
- Mitigating Cyber Risks — via Technologist
- Guitar Center Employees May NOT Share “Very Negative” — via Gawker
HR & Employee Relations
- Neil deGrasse Tyson: Work and Life Don’t Always Have to Be Balanced — via Lifehacker
- Vacation Policy in Corporate America Is Broken — via Harvard Business Review
- Kinder, gentler Terminator: how to say ‘Hasta la vista’ to employees without getting sued — via EntertainHR
- Should We Tell Our Employee To Remove His Confederate Flag Bumper Sticker? — via Evil Skippy at Work
- Corporate Espionage: Not Your Typical Sports-“Gate” — via Trading Secrets
Wage, Hour, & Safety
- All the Best Uber Drivers I’ve Had Want to be Contractors, Not Employees — via The HR Capitalist, Kris Dunn
- Are Male Strippers Exempt From the FLSA As Creative Professionals? — via Minnesota Employer
- Cross-departmental work? Remember OT rules — via Business Management Daily
- How to make sense of Obama’s big changes to overtime policy — via Wonkblog
- Anatomy of an OSHA Inspection — via The Emplawyerologist
- OSHA launches its Hazard Identification Training Tool OSHA Law Blog
Labor Relations
- NLRB Reverses Longstanding Rule: Employers Now Required to Disclose Confidential Witness Statements in Investigations—a Major Change for Labor Arbitration? — via Management Memo
- NLRB Weakens Employers’ Ability to Conduct Effective Workplace Investigations — via Employment Law Worldview
- NLRB Flip Flops, Finds Employer Legally Terminated Employee for Dishonesty — via Labor Relations Today
- Ambush at the NLRB: Region 28's Average Election Time Now 18 Days — via Labor and Employment Law Cocktail