By Honore N. Hishamunda and Erin Dougherty Foley
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employees can sometimes sour on jobs they transfer to and, this in turn, can create practical and legal risk for employers, particularly where an employee changed jobs in connection with a disability accommodation. A recent decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, however, makes
Continue Reading Your Accommodation Can’t Be That Bad, You Asked For It….
By Stan Hill and Cary Reid Burke
Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, when affirming summary judgment to the employer in a disability discrimination case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued two welcome reminders. First, to pursue a disability accommodation, an employee must actually ask for an accommodation (although not necessarily using any magic words). Second, and just as fundamentally, employees must
Continue Reading Ask, or You Shall Not Receive: 5th Circuit Nixes Accommodation Claim for Employee’s Failure to Ask for an Accommodation
By Linda C. Schoonmaker and Vanessa Rogers
Seyfarth Synopsis: Vaccinations have been widely debated over the past few years, leaving employers unclear about their obligations to accommodate employees whose religious beliefs conflict with them. Recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision providing insight into vaccination accommodations and establishing favorable precedent for employers.
Specifically, the
Continue Reading 5th Circuit Says No, Employer Not Liable for Religious Discrimination, Retaliation, or First Amendment Violations in Employee Vaccination Case
Seyfarth Synopsis: Given this recent New Mexico medical marijuana law change discussed here, employers in all jurisdictions should review their current policies and practices addressing “weed at work” and continue to monitor developments in this evolving area of law.
Although New Mexico has had a medical marijuana law in place since 2007, it did not contain
Continue Reading New Mexico Just Became Employee-Friendly to Medical Marijuana Users
By Dawn Reddy Solowey and Latoya R. Laing
Seyfarth Synopsis: The 8th Circuit recently held that while a request for a religious accommodation may qualify as a protected activity, it is not necessarily “oppositional” so as to give rise to an opposition-clause retaliation claim under Title VII. Employers considering requests for religious accommodation should, despite this Circuit’s narrow decision,
Continue Reading 8th Circuit Agrees, Request for Religious Accommodation is not Oppositional Conduct
By John Ayers-Mann and Patrick J. Bannon
Seyfarth Synopsis: Although an employee can prove discrimination by showing that an employer’s reasons for adverse action are pretextual, the Eleventh Circuit finds that an employee must do more than merely contest the proffered reasons to survive summary judgment.
A recent Eleventh Circuit decision illustrates that Plaintiffs in discrimination cases face a
Continue Reading How Narrow is a Discrimination Plaintiff’s Road to Trial in the Eleventh Circuit?
By Michael L. DeMarino and Dawn R. Solowey
Seyfarth Synopsis: Title VII requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for an employee’s religious practices. But what is “reasonable” has been the subject of much debate and litigation. The Tenth Circuit’s decision in Christmon v. B&B Airparts, Inc., No. 17-3209, 2018 WL 2344628, at *1 (10th Cir. May 24,
Continue Reading Tenth Circuit Reaffirms That Title VII Does Not Require Employers to Offer an Employee Their “Preferred” Religious Accommodation
By Erin Dougherty Foley, Ashley K. Laken, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: According to the EEOC in this just filed lawsuit, a home care services provider in North Carolina violated federal disability rights law when it rejected telecommuting requests from an employee whose asthma and COPD “made her sensitive to workplace smells.”
Earlier this month, the
Continue Reading Watch Out: Workplace Smells, ADA Disability, Telecommuting, and an EEOC Lawsuit
Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent decision by a federal district court in Minnesota held that a religious accommodation request is not “protected activity” under Title VII. In defending retaliation litigation, employers should consider whether there is a viable argument that a request for religious accommodation is not sufficient to establish protected activity as a matter of
Continue Reading Court Rules Request for Religious Accommodation Is Not “Protected Activity” for Title VII Retaliation
By Paul Galligan and Samuel Sverdlov
Synopsis: The Seventh Circuit affirmed a summary judgment decision in favor of the employer on the plaintiff’s race discrimination and civil conspiracy claims where the employer did not hire the plaintiff after the plaintiff tested positive for marijuana at orientation.
Last month, in Turner v. Hirschbach Motor Lines, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Blazes Truck Driver’s Failure to Hire Claims