On November 9, 2018, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported on the agency’s activities over the past year. The EEOC oversees most federal employment discrimination laws. This broader release on EEOC outreach and enforcement follows earlier reports addressing only sexual harassment. The EEOC’s fiscal year ended September 30, 2018. EEOC Outreach Initiatives EEOC … Read more
Most employers know they can’t discriminate against employees based on the employees’ own legally protected characteristics. But they may not realize that the same laws often also prohibit “association discrimination,” or “relationship discrimination.” In other words, employers can’t discriminate based on an individual’s association with someone in a protected class. Forms of Association Discrimination The … Read more
The federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) took effect in 2009. Today, most employers have still never heard of the law, which makes it illegal to discriminate against employees and applicants because of genetic information. Those employers who have heard of GINA probably don’t understand how expansive its protections are. First, the law defines “genetic … Read more