Category: Human Resources

A 25-minute meeting in Spanish allegedly became a two-sentence summary in English. That may be a workplace communication problem, but this court did not see race or national-origin discrimination. TL;DR: A white, English-speaking manager claimed that Spanish-language workplace meetings excluded him and interfered with his job. A federal court granted

The employer approved light duty. Seventeen days later, it fired the pregnant employee over an alleged policy violation from two months earlier. TL;DR: A warehouse associate plausibly alleged pregnancy discrimination and retaliation after her employer allegedly reduced her overtime, approved light duty, and then fired her. The court allowed her

A job applicant told a polygraph examiner that she consumed ayahuasca as part of her religion. An agency adjudicator labeled it “recent illegal drug use,” and the tentative job offer disappeared. TL;DR: A federal applicant plausibly alleged religious discrimination after an agency withdrew her tentative offer based on her sacramental

The employer thought it had caught an employee lying in an EEOC charge. Then it put that conclusion in the termination notice. That second decision cost considerably more than the first. TL;DR: An employer fired a detention deputy after concluding that he made false statements in an EEOC charge. A

Lizzo’s touring company swept every remaining claim from a former wardrobe assistant’s lawsuit off the stage. The celebrity headline masks an evidence lesson. TL;DR: A federal court granted summary judgment to Lizzo’s touring company on seven employment claims. Some alleged conduct was inappropriate, but the evidence did not establish unlawful

The employee left the termination call. Unfortunately for the company, its AI note-taker apparently did not. And it allegedly emailed her what the company representatives said next. TL;DR: A former environmental scientist alleges that her employer fired her during a recorded video call, then discussed replacing her with “hopefully a

An arbitration agreement usually decides where an employment dispute will be heard. In this case, evidence uncovered during arbitration opened the door to court instead. TL;DR: A former executive began arbitrating national-origin and domestic-violence-victim claims. After withdrawing over allegedly late arbitration fees, she filed in court and relied on evidence

A no-remote rule sounds straightforward. It became much less so when a professor with an autoimmune condition requested an accommodation. TL;DR: An associate professor diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune condition requested permission to move her scheduled in-person courses online for four semesters while taking immunosuppressive medication. A federal appeals court