“Stop.” “Don’t do that.” “Leave me alone.” In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that when an employee makes statements like these to a supervisor in response to the supervisor’s sexually harassing conduct, the employee has engaged in protected activity under Title VII ... Read More »

My company doesn’t have a union so the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) don’t apply to me… right? Wrong. In the Spring 2015 issue of BGD Magazine, firm attorneys William J. Kishman and Aleksandr “Sasha” Litvinov discussed what several recent ... Read More »

Last week’s decision by the Fourth Circuit in Boyer-Liberto v. Fontainebleau Corp., No. 13-1473 (4th Cir., May 7, 2015) now means that in the Fourth Circuit, a single instance of harassment may create an actionable hostile work environment claim, and that an employee can be protected from retaliation when complaining ... Read More »

Title VII prohibits discrimination against applicants for employment on the basis of their religion. Accordingly, during the hiring process, an employer generally shouldn’t inquire into an applicant’s religious denomination or practices, including asking questions about the religious holidays she observes. Title VII also requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees’ and ... Read More »

How much proof is enough to avoid liability/litigation? This question haunts many employers who may be frustrated by employees skipping work or abusing leaves of absence. In a recent case, an employer had a videotape of an employee tending to his side business on a day he had reported he ... Read More »

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, ADAAA) and Rehabilitation Act, which incorporates most of the ADA standards, prohibit discriminating against employees based on their disabilities.  Indeed, with the ADAAA amendment, recent court decisions have broadened the scope of what is considered a disability, as well as what steps an employer must take ... Read More »

Employers will soon need to act quickly if they want to educate employees who are thinking of unionization.  That’s because the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) December 2014 issuance of the “Representation Case Procedures Rule” (the “Rule”), which is scheduled to go into effect on April 14, 2015, will accelerate ... Read More »