Discrimination & Harassment Blogs

EEOC Achievements in 2016 Highlighted by Discrimination Resolutions

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released its 2016 Fiscal Year (FY) Performance Report. The report outlines the EEOC’s accomplishments in FY 2016, which ran from October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2016.

Lebau & Neuworth Files Lawsuit for Employment Discrimination Case against Verizon

Attorneys at Lebau & Neuworth filed a lawsuit against Verizon on behalf of a victim of employment discrimination by the company. In this case, our client worked for Verizon for nearly two decades as a cable splicing technician and was discriminated against because of his religion and retaliated against because he reported the discrimination.

Discipline After Complaints Of Discrimination Can Establish Retaliation Claims

Recently in Williams v. Ricoh Ams., the Federal District Court in Virginia made an important ruling in favor of employees who exercise their rights under anti-discrimination statutes. In the case, Mr. Williams, a 58 year-old African American male, was successfully employed by the defendant employer, Ricoh Americas Corporation, for 13 years.

Client With Disability Receives Justice Through The EEOC

Patricia Bonds, a client of Lebau & Neuworth, worked as a food clerk at Safeway's Westminster, Maryland, store when she sustained a work-related injury that substantially limited her ability to lift. Although Safeway initially accommodated Bonds' disability by reassigning her to work at the customer service desk, the store abruptly placed her on indefinite unpaid leave, claiming that she had exhausted her time limits for modified duty.

The Future of the Battle Against Discrimination Through the Eyes of the EEOC

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently approved a Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP), which sets the EEOC’s priorities for the next five years. This gives insight into what actions the EEOC will consider over the next few years to help combat continued discrimination in the workplace.

Living with a Disability Through the Americans With Disabilities Act

We owe much of this progress to the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 and the laws that led up to it. Starting in the 1960s, a broad disability rights movement encouraged legislation and policy that gradually desegregated the institutions and spaces that had kept disabled people out and barred them from exercising the privileges and obligations of full citizenship.

Discrimination Update: Increased Penalty for Violating EEOC’s Posting Rule

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has issued a Final Rule increasing the maximum penalty for covered employers who violate the notice posting provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) or the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (“GINA”).

Federal Contractor Employees have New Sex Discrimination Guidelines

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued its Final Rule to update sex discrimination guidelines for federal government contractors. The Final Rule became effective on August 15, 2016.

Additional Means for Combating Harassment in the Workplace

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released a report of its “Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace,” the purpose of which was to move beyond the legal arena and gain insights into preventing workplace harassment from the worlds of social science and practitioners on the ground.

Lebau & Neuworth found the report extremely interesting and insightful, and we want to share a few items with you.

Maryland is Home of Landmark EEOC Sexual-Orientation Settlement

A Maryland-based employer will pay $202,200 and provide other equitable relief to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court for the District of Maryland, alleging sex discrimination based on sexual orientation. The lawsuit was one of the first claims filed in court by the EEOC alleging that a private employer violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by treating an employee differently because of his or her sexual orientation.​