Category: Human Resources

The termination decision-maker didn’t know about the complaint. That gap cost the employee everything. TL;DR: A security supervisor reported his manager for favoring female employees, then got fired days later over training failures and performance issues. The Tenth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the employer because the employee couldn’t show

Over 18,000 pest-control workers were allegedly barred from competing with their former employer for two years after leaving. The FTC says that’s 18,000 too many. TL;DR: The FTC filed an administrative complaint against the parent company of Orkin and other pest-control brands, alleging that its blanket noncompete policy covering more

The $11.5 million verdict against SHRM survived. Now the court’s explanation of why offers a sharper lesson than the verdict itself. TL;DR: A federal court denied SHRM’s post-trial motions seeking to overturn or reduce an $11.5 million jury verdict for race discrimination and retaliation under Section 1981. The court upheld

An employee told Social Security it was “impossible” for him to work, then filed an ADA lawsuit claiming he could perform his job with accommodations. The court tossed it on summary judgment. TL;DR: A truck driver with Parkinson’s disease applied for total Social Security disability benefits, swearing under penalty of

An employee returned from his third round of FMLA leave and found a performance improvement plan waiting for him. That looks terrible. But a jury will never hear about it. TL;DR: A manufacturing engineer was placed on a PIP immediately after returning from his third FMLA leave and later terminated.

An engineer got fired for making offensive comments about his non-Christian co-workers, then sued for religious discrimination. There was just one problem: he wouldn’t show anyone the EEOC charge he filed. TL;DR: A federal court in Texas granted summary judgment to a technology employer on an employee’s Title VII religious

A police department ran a volunteer program that looked and felt a lot like a job, complete with uniforms, badges, ranks, performance reviews, and a paramilitary chain of command. Three young women in the program alleged sex discrimination and retaliation, got dismissed, waited over two years to file charges, and

An employee complained to HR about discrimination. About two and a half months later, the employer skipped progressive discipline, gave no warning, and fired her the same day over emails. Most people would expect that case to go to a jury. It didn’t. TL;DR: An employee claimed race and sex

A weekend schedule change. A Sunday church conflict. And apparently no one at the company thought to have a conversation about it. TL;DR: According to a new EEOC lawsuit, an employer violated Title VII by changing an employee’s schedule to weekends, ignoring his religious objection, and effectively forcing him to