COVID vaccination mandates may be behind us, but the lawsuits they generated are still shaping how courts analyze religious accommodation under Title VII. This Third Circuit decision is a reminder that an accommodation can still be challenged when it allegedly creates a new burden. TL;DR: The
Employees do not need to use legal buzzwords to be protected from retaliation. But they do need to complain about the right thing. General workplace grievances are not the same as opposing unlawful discrimination, and courts continue to enforce that distinction. TL;DR: An employee’s internal grievance about unfair treatment
Constructive discharge is a high bar. But an ultimatum, delivered the wrong way and on the wrong timeline, can be enough to clear it. That was the lesson from a recent federal court decision involving a pregnant employee who was told she could either keep working under at-will conditions or
When employees say, “You helped him when he was injured but refused to help me,” it sounds like discrimination. It also sounds like a failure-to-accommodate dispute. A recent Ninth Circuit decision shows why that framing matters, and why getting it wrong can sink the case before it ever reaches a
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: it’s the Monday after the Super Bowl, an employee with approved intermittent FMLA leave asks for a personal day, gets denied, switches to FMLA, and later finds himself terminated for “abuse.” That is not a hypothetical. It is essentially what happened in a
Me? I probably would not tell the EEOC that I removed a Black employee from work because of her “introduction of race” into the workplace. Especially after she complained about race discrimination triggered by a question about attending a Black Lives Matter protest. But that is exactly what happened
Performance improvement plans are often treated as neutral management tools. This case shows how quickly a PIP can become the centerpiece of a retaliation claim once an employee raises equity concerns. TL;DR: After an employee raised “boys’ club” concerns, her employer placed her on a performance improvement plan about
Not every denied accommodation becomes a viable lawsuit. Courts are still asking a simple threshold question before a discrimination case goes anywhere. TL;DR: In a recent Eleventh Circuit decision, the court affirmed summary judgment for the employer, holding that a denied religious accommodation does not violate Title VII unless it
Pay equity disputes are rarely about a single salary decision. They turn on whether an employer’s explanation for a pay gap holds together once the facts are examined. A recent Seventh Circuit decision shows how reorganizations that blend promotions and transfers into the same role can expose cracks in that
In Groundhog Day, the problem isn’t that the day repeats. It’s that nothing changes. At one point, Phil Connors captures the frustration perfectly: “What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.” That same problem shows up when employers investigate complaints about a supervisor, conclude the conduct is not
Whistleblower cases do not begin with evidence and proof. They begin with allegations. If those allegations are plausible, employers get forced into discovery. Under CEPA, that bar is very low. TL;DR: At the motion-to-dismiss stage, a claim under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) does not require proof
Hiring can feel like a checklist: background check, drug test, start date. But when an applicant raises a disability-related issue, those boxes stop being routine, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) starts asking questions. TL;DR: An applicant disclosed prescription medications that could affect a required drug test and
If retaliation claims could be proven just by pointing to an employer’s handbook, summary judgment would be extinct. This court made clear that policies don’t replace proof. TL;DR: An employee argued that retaliation could be inferred because the employer’s harassment policy required managers to report complaints “up the ladder,” so
Most employment cases fall apart because the evidence is thin or the comparators don’t line up. This one fell apart because of what the employee herself admitted – under oath. TL;DR: A Sixth Circuit panel affirmed summary judgment for an urgent care clinic after a front-desk employee was terminated
The EEOC just pulled the plug on its most comprehensive harassment guidance. Some federal guardrails are gone, but the law is not – and neither are employers’ obligations. TL;DR: The EEOC has rescinded its 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. The statutes prohibiting harassment did not change, but
Deciding too early that accommodation is impossible can shape everything that follows. This case shows why courts often let juries sort it out. In a recent ADA decision from the Northern District of Illinois, an employer decided an injured employee could not return as a bus operator under her medical