Skip to main content

The Great EEOC Roundup: May Edition


As always, there are some recent EEOC cases that jump out at me when I review recent development on that front.  Below are a couple EEOC cases and settlements that stand out:


Tiny's Organic Settles Pregnancy Discrimination Suit for $17,500.00

Earlier in May, the EEOC announced that Tiny's Organic would pay $17,500.00 to settle a pregnancy discrimination claim brought by a former employee.  The EEOC had alleged that Tiny's fired Maria Guillen nine days after she disclosed that she was pregnant with twins.  Even though Guillen had worked at Tiny's for over six years and had worked her way up, her employer claimed it feared for her safety and company liability.  Even though Guillen had a doctor who cleared her to perform her job without medical restrictions, Tiny's refused. 

This conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination based upon pregnancy, childbirth, or any medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth. 

EEOC Press Release:  http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-4-15.cfm


Ruby Tuesday to Pay $100,000.00 to Settle Sex Discrimination Suit

The EEOC recently announced that it had settled a sex discrimination claim filed against Ruby Tuesday, with the company agreeing to pay $100,000.00 and implement preventative measures.  Ruby Tuesday was charged with denying two male employees the opportunity to work as servers at its Park City, Utah location.  When the company posted an internal announcement for summer positions with company provided housing (and a chance for higher earnings), the announcement also stated only females would be considered because of alleged concerns over housing employees of both genders.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from giving more advantageous terms and conditions of employment to one group of individuals based upon gender.  This conduct by Ruby Tuesday violated that statue as the two male employees who complained of the discrimination were prohibited from an employment opportunity based upon their gender.

EEOC Press Release:  http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/5-21-15a.cfm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more