Recently Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, with the President expected to sign the Act into law. The law amends the Federal Arbitration Act making predispute arbitration agreements dealing with sexual harassment or assault between employers and employees invalid and unenforceable. While employers and employees can… Read More »
Job Protection for Expectant Moms
Last month the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2694, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) to eliminate discrimination and promote women’s health and economic security by ensuring reasonable accommodations to workers limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related condition. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the PWFA would supplement the accommodation… Read More »
#MeToo Movement Impacting Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
According to a recent survey, over 75% of employees asked said that the #MeToo Movement has positively impacted how sexual harassment claims are handled in the workplace. Many claim the social movement to raise awareness regarding sex discrimination, specifically sexual harassment, has made a difference on the job. Many Human Resources departments across the country… Read More »
Poll Reveals Workplace Sexual Harassment Abundant
A new poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC reveals that 48% of women surveyed have experienced sexual harassment at work. Near as many men admit that they have personally witnessed women being harassed. The vast majority of respondents, which included 900 adults, believe that sexual harassment takes place in most or almost… Read More »
Documenting Workplace Harassment or Discrimination
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII defines a hostile work environment to include situations where a person is harassed or discriminated against based on their sex, race, religion, national origin, age or disability. The law is not meant to protect against mere teasing or isolated situations that are not serious, but rather pervasive… Read More »
The Role of HR in Workplace Harassment
A well-functioning human resources office can alert employers to harassment complaints in the workplace so that the employer can act quickly and effectively. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a conflict of interest when HR is called upon to police a company while remaining accountable to its senior executives, who in some cases, are the subject of… Read More »
What Should I Do if I Am Unfairly Fired?
If you believe you have been fired from your job unfairly, you may wonder if you have any legal recourse against your Iowa employer. The answer is, it depends on the circumstances surrounding your termination. The state of Iowa is an at-will state, which means that an employer has great latitude in terminating an employee.… Read More »
Sexual Orientation Discrimination on the Job
While three federal appeals courts are considering whether Title VII’s sex discrimination ban prohibits bias based on sexual orientation, the complaints continue to roll in. Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed another sex discrimination complaint, this time on behalf of a driver of an oil rig company who said he was repeatedly subjected to… Read More »
Workplace Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation
Courts often struggle with differentiating between claims of employment discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation that are not protected under Title VII and claims of discrimination based on sex stereotyping that are. In Hivey v. Ivy Tech Community College the court ruled against the plaintiff who claimed she was denied promotion and ultimately terminated because… Read More »
Workplace Harassment Persists According to EEOC
According to the findings of a recent EEOC task force, workplace harassment remains a persistent problem. Of the 90,000 charges received by the EEOC in 2015, one third included allegations of workplace harassment including charges of unlawful harassment on the basis of sex. Unfortunately, much of the time sex-based harassment goes unreported. Victims often try… Read More »