RELEASE SIGNED BY HR DIRECTOR-DOESN’T RELEASE CLAIM FOR INDEMNIFICATION An HR Director was sued individually for sexual harassment. Her employment terminated and a release was signed. Her employer then settled the sexual harassment suit, which was filed against the employer and the HR Director. An Appeals Court in Tennessee found that the release did not […]
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An African American employee told a supervisor about race harassment by co-workers. The Seventh Circuit found that the supervisor’s investigation was not “textbook in its execution.” However, the supervisor’s action had “the purpose and effect of elimination of further race-based harassment.” Case dismissed. (Williams v. Waste Mgmt. of Ill.)
A trucking company will not use drivers taking prescriptions that could impair their ability to drive. The Second Circuit found no violation because the employer did not view the workers taking such medications as disabled.
Mack alleged Otis Elevator should be liable for the hostile environment caused by her supervisor. The employer argued that the “supervisor” could not put the company on the hook because he could not hire, promote, reassign, change benefits or fire. The Second Circuit found that Otis could be liable because the supervisor made and oversaw […]
A supervisor of a drilling rig was fired because of his age and awarded $303,392. The judgment was reversed because the former supervisor accepted lower paying hourly work after he was discriminatorily fired and failed to attempt to obtain “substantially equivalent employment” or otherwise supplement his income.
The Seventh Circuit finds that “the occasional vulgar banter, tinged with sexual innuendo, of coarse or boorish workers would be neither pervasive nor offensive enough to be actionable … The workplace that is actionable is the one that is hellish.”
A woman sought to bring a sexual harassment claim after signing a release. She argued that she did not knowingly sign the release because it did not mention “Title VII” or “federal claims.” The Court was not persuaded — case dismissed.
An employee with a spotty attendance record was fired for being out sick. Her leave was not FMLA protected because she did not tell her employer that her absence was due to depression until litigation started.
America West Airlines told employees in a handbook that they could take 12 weeks within any 12 month period. The Airline argued it was a rolling 12 month period. An employee needed a 12 month calendar period. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the handbook was not clear, so whatever method of calculating the 12 month […]