A company-paid hotel stay, meals, and two days away from regular duties sound like nice work perks. Restricting the invitation list by sex can turn those perks into a discrimination lawsuit. TL;DR: A federal court allowed the EEOC’s sex discrimination lawsuit over a women-only networking event to proceed. Excluded male
Your company may be headquartered hundreds of miles from Pittsburgh. A remote employee working in Allegheny County could still bring the nation’s first countywide paid parental leave mandate to your doorstep. TL;DR: Allegheny County has enacted employer-funded parental leave of up to 12 weeks and expanded sick leave. The broader
An employee accused of misconduct can often name someone who supposedly got away with something similar. Employers should be prepared to explain why one employee receives different treatment than another, and good documentation can help. TL;DR: A sheriff’s office defeated a detective’s sex-discrimination claim without a trial, and a federal
A company retreat ended with coworkers pulling a man off an employee he sexually assaulted. The company kept him. TL;DR: An employer won a federal case alleging harassment and a firing in retaliation for reporting an assault. The harassment claim was filed too late, and records supported the company’s reasons
Your employee signed an agreement to arbitrate all employment disputes. But a single sexual harassment claim can bring an entire lawsuit, and every other claim with it, into court anyway. TL;DR: The Second Circuit joined the Sixth and Ninth Circuits in holding that properly invoking the federal law allowing sexual
A former EEOC employee says the agency’s LGBTQ+ rollbacks made his job intolerable, including changes he was required to help implement. A federal court has allowed his harassment, discrimination, and retaliation claims to proceed. TL;DR: A former transgender EEOC employee can pursue harassment, discrimination, and retaliation claims tied to LGBTQ+
If a manager has to explain why telling an employee to stop going to HR was legally defensible, the conversation has already gone poorly. TL;DR: An employer defeated a retaliation claim despite a manager linking promotions to an end to HR complaints. The decisive point: the employee’s relevant complaints described
Three days is a long time to wait to explain a religious objection. In this case, the wait came after the conflict, and that was enough to sink the accommodation claim. TL;DR: A Pennsylvania federal court dismissed, without prejudice, a spa employee’s Title VII and Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA)
A resignation letter can look like a tidy ending. This one left the school defending what happened before it arrived. TL;DR: A school’s invitation to discuss alternatives left an employee’s Sabbath conflict unresolved. Her accommodation and retaliation claims survived because a jury could find her resignation was forced. 📄 Read
Your employees work from kitchen tables across the country. Before eliminating their jobs, you may need to figure out which tables count together. TL;DR: Courts disagree about how federal WARN’s layoff-notice requirements apply to fully remote employees. A Florida employer won this case, but working from home does not establish
A meeting, a report, and a camera gave this employer plenty to describe. The employee’s testimony about what happened afterward gave a jury something to decide. TL;DR: An employer investigated alleged racial harassment, prohibited the language, and later installed a camera. But the employee testified that the comments continued. Her
A signature mismatch can make HR suspicious. It can also have an explanation worth hearing before someone gets fired. TL;DR: An employer fired an employee for allegedly falsifying FMLA paperwork after checking with two doctors who had not signed it. But it never followed a lead to the doctor who
The Pennsylvania Bar Institute has entrusted me with putting together three hours of online continuing legal education. Naturally, my first move is to recruit reinforcements. TL;DR: I’m looking for people interested in speaking at a remote labor and employment Business Lawyer Master Class in June 2027. You don’t need to
A boss wanted to discuss settling an employee’s harassment claims without lawyers present. That invitation came with more baggage than the calendar entry suggested. TL;DR: The Second Circuit revived an employee’s retaliation claims after finding that her refusal to discuss settlement plausibly communicated continued opposition to discrimination. She still has
There are probably better things to ask ChatGPT during litigation than how quickly permanently deleted emails disappear. Especially when the other side is looking for those emails. TL;DR: A former employee denied signing a non-solicitation and confidentiality agreement. A forensic examination later uncovered ChatGPT searches about permanently deleted Yahoo emails.
A Mexico vacation while on sick leave is an easy headline. The employer’s defense required a closer look at two separate decisions. TL;DR: A police department defeated discrimination, accommodation, and retaliation claims brought by an officer demoted for violating its sick-leave policy and later discharged because she could not perform