Private Sector Bias Charges Hit All Time High in 2011

In FY 2011, the EEOC helped 5.4 million workers, obtained more than $450 million dollars in settlements and forced millions of employers to implement very specific training programs and report training activities back to the EEOC. Moreover, the EEOC wanted to see all training documentation. Many employers ask us if EEO and harassment training are… Continue reading »

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LA City Fire Gets Slapped

The Los Angeles City Fire Department will pay $494,150 and implement widespread anti-harassment training to settle federal charges of discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Charges were brought by a firefighter/engineer alleged that his coworkers mocked him and used explicit and offensive religious and sexual epithets towards him, making his workplace… Continue reading »

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FEDERAL CONTRACTORS BEWARE

Does your company have a federal contract? If so, you need to be tuned in to the fact that Patricia Shui, Director of the OFCCP, proposed new regulations in December that entail hiring goals, expanded record-keeping requirements and mandatory training. On a broader level, Director Shui said that the general requirement of “good faith efforts”… Continue reading »

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Private Sector Bias Charges Hit All Time High in 2011 LA City Fire Gets Slapped FEDERAL CONTRACTORS BEWARE

Feb
10

Private Sector Bias Charges Hit All Time High in 2011

by Janine Yancey

In FY 2011, the EEOC helped 5.4 million workers, obtained more than $450 million dollars in settlements and forced millions of employers to implement very specific training programs and report training activities back to the EEOC. Moreover, the EEOC wanted to see all training documentation.

Many employers ask us if EEO and harassment training are statutorily required. Implicit in the question is the idea that if it isn’t required, they won’t do it. Here’s the deal. A few states have an actual training law on the books. Most do not. But, if you get any claim asserted against you, the first question you’ll get is to hand over your training documentation and proof that you trained everyone in your workforce.

Just this week, I met with a large staffing firm that told me the following story. One of their clients terminated a contractor because she was pregnant. The staffing firm was sued along with their client. The state agency asked for all EEO training documentation and proof of training. While the staffing firm conducts an annual 20 minute awareness training, they don’t have it in a format where they can quickly produce a training script and database records of learner participation in the training. In short, their awareness training didn’t stop the questions of the EEO investigators and instead prompted more questions such as, how long does each person spend in the training? do they need to get the questions correct to proceed? what case studies are included in the training? Ideally, you should be able to produce a course transcript and litigation training record that tells the whole training story from the face of the document. After looking at your training “evidence”, there shouldn’t be any further questions . . . Which is one of the first things you learn as a litigation attorney. . . If you have to explain and walk people through your evidence, then it’s not great evidence. Same concept applies to training. The more you need to explain your training documentation, then its not great documentation and it won’t help you in a claim.

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Feb
03

LA City Fire Gets Slapped

by Janine Yancey

The Los Angeles City Fire Department will pay $494,150 and implement widespread anti-harassment training to settle federal charges of discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Charges were brought by a firefighter/engineer alleged that his coworkers mocked him and used explicit and offensive religious and sexual epithets towards him, making his workplace unbearable. Although he complained about the harassment to management officials, the EEOC investigation found that the Fire Department failed to adequately halt or address it.

LA City Fire was ordered to launch anti-harassment training to all fire station chiefs and their subordinate staff, impacting every fire station in the city of Los Angeles.

The take-away?

No one wants a lawsuit. So the fact that these firefighters engaged in “fraternity house” antics shows a lack of training and awareness on the topic. This type of blatant bad behavior should be a thing of the past since any decent training program can at least raise awareness so you don’t get goofball mistakes like the ones the firefighters made.

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Jan
23

FEDERAL CONTRACTORS BEWARE

by Janine Yancey

Does your company have a federal contract? If so, you need to be tuned in to the fact that Patricia Shui, Director of the OFCCP, proposed new regulations in December that entail hiring goals, expanded record-keeping requirements and mandatory training. On a broader level, Director Shui said that the general requirement of “good faith efforts” [for EEO awareness] without any more specific requirement, is “simply not working.” That should telegraph her perspective to federal contractors. Many of us watching the OFCCP the last few years have observed the increased audits and more rigorous scrutiny on federal contractors. For those of you who rely on a poster or policy statement, or even an undocumented classroom session, to show your “good faith efforts” to level the playing field . . . you’re in for a rude awakening when you’re name gets called for an audit. The OFCCP is routinely examining any and all EEO training records. Do your biz dev team a favor and ensure the compliance team is up to speed on what the OFCCP wants to see. Documented EEO training and an EEO awareness throughout all levels of the organization.

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Dec
05

HOLIDAY SENSITIVITY

by Janine Yancey

TIS THE SEASON TO BE MERRY . . . but which holiday are you celebrating in the workplace? Every year some people in the workplace feel excluded and uncomfortable.

There are a number of religious and cultural holidays that your coworkers may be observing this season. Holiday celebrations are often when religious differences are inadvertently ignored.

Remember that many religions have important celebrations during the months of November and December. To increase your awareness, we’ve listed some of the season’s celebrations below.

Christmas

One of the most recognized and celebrated holidays of Christianity occurs on December 25, the day that marks Jesus Christ´s birth. Over 3 billion Christians worldwide celebrate Christmas.

Hanukkah

“The Festival of Lights” celebrates the victory of the Maccabees, led by Judah, and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days. During the eight nights of Hanukkah, candles are lit in a menorah, which holds nine candles: one for each night, plus an extra used to light the other candles.

The Month of Hajj

The month of Hajj occurs during the 12th month of the Islamic lunar year and is a very sacred month. It is during this month that pilgrims from all around the world congregate at Mecca. The first ten days of the month of Hajj are particularly significant where many Moslems fast and pray.

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday celebrated from December 26 through January 1 by many African-Americans. The word Kwanzaa is Swahili for “first fruits of the harvest” and involves gathering family and friends to discuss and commit to seven guiding principles. Each day, a candle is lit signifying a principle – unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. A feast is held on December 31 for remembering, reassessing and rejoicing.

Bodhi Day

Bodhi Day celebrates when the Buddha experienced enlightenment and discovered the Four Noble Truths. Buddhists celebrate by stringing colored lights representing the numerous pathways to enlightenment, feasting on traditional foods and greeting each other with “Budu Saranai!” which loosely translated means, “May the serenity of the Buddha’s be yours!”

This season, try to be respectful and inclusive of everyone’s celebration. When preparing and decorating the office for holidays, you may want to ask your coworkers to share their holiday traditions so everyone feels included. Also, make holiday activities voluntary. Not all employees feel comfortable celebrating, or may not be able to join in according to religious beliefs or dietary restrictions. Non-participation should not be viewed negatively. Celebrating with coworkers during the holiday season is a wonderful way to increase workplace camaraderie. When handled with sensitivity, workplace festivities can increase our unity, understanding and appreciation for our team . . . which is a true celebration of the holiday season.

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Oct
17

HR Training in an iPad/ YouTube Society

by Janine Yancey

Yes, we’re in the mad rush of AB 1825 training here in California. Each training year, we see hundreds of thousands of learners take their training and email us questions, comments, etc. In other words, we have our finger on the employee training pulse.

It struck me last week that employee’s expectations of training, even “boring” old harassment training, have increased significantly since the last training cycle in 2009. What’s the difference? In the last two years, a significant number of people regularly visit YouTube for instructional material and use their iPad to watch movies that gives the same viewing quality as what you’d receive in a movie theater. In short, most people have become quite accustomed to experiencing good quality video and audio in any situation. Unfortunately, many harassment and other compliance programs don’t factor in this higher employee expectation and instead, serve up training with nice looking pictures and text. Some may include an audio track too.

However, in order to relate to your employees’ expectations and work-experiences, you need to serve them training that contains good quality workplace vignettes. Your employees will respect you for rolling out decent quality training and they’ll learn more from the workplace vignettes than they would from any picture/text course.

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Sep
26

EEOC ADVERTISES ITS DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST BASS PRO

by Janine Yancey

If you check out EEOC.gov, you’ll see that the EEOC just launched a class action lawsuit against Bass Pro, a retailer of sporting goods apparel, alleging that Bass Pro routinely denied qualified African-Americans and Hispanics to retail positions such as cashier, sales associate, team leader, supervisor, manager and other positions at many Bass Pro stores nationwide.

The lawsuit alleges that managers at Bass Pro stores made overtly racially derogatory remarks acknowledging the discriminatory practices, including that hiring black candidates did not fit the corporate profile. The lawsuit also claims that Bass Pro unlawfully destroyed or failed to keep records and documents related to employment applications and internal discrimination complaints. Bass Pro punished employees who opposed the company’s unlawful practices, in some instances firing them or forcing them to resign.

What’s a bit unusual about this case though is that the EEOC has a video on its website soliciting people to join its lawsuit or provide helpful information against Bass Pro.

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Sep
16

Company must pay $846K after firing cancer patient

by Janine Yancey

My last few blog posts have been about ADA issues. I hate to keep harping on the same issue, but here’s another ADA situation. California’s state agency (the Fair Employment and Housing Commission) has ordered Acme Electric, a Wisconsin company, to pay $846,000 for firing a sales manager who had to limit work travel as he was recovering from cancer surgery.

The employee was a regional sales manager until he was fired in 2008 at age 59.

Acme Electric said the employee wasn’t spending enough time traveling to meet customers during his recovery from cancer surgery in 2006 and 2007.

But the FEHC said the company’s reasons were baseless and ruled the firing was discrimination based on the employee’s disability and that the company had a duty to attempt a reasonable accommodation for the employee’s reduced travel needs.

As cancer rates increase (another discussion for another time), employers and managers should be figuring out their procedures for handling those situations and identify a variety of possible accommodations.

Let’s put it this way . . . in the world of litigation, I really wouldn’t want to be an employer defendant facing an ADA lawsuit brought by a cancer victim/employee. It’s best to avoid that situation at all costs.

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Sep
12

EEOC FILES 3 DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION LAWSUITS LAST WEEK

by Janine Yancey

Last month, emTRAiN co-hosted a webinar with Peoplefluent, a full-service, talent management company, warning participants that the EEOC is focusing on ADA issues. In June, the EEOC held a panel discussion to evaluate “no fault” leave of absence policies and the agency has made it clear that its goal is to raise employers’ awareness to ADA issues and violations. Since last fall, the EEOC has filed one ADA lawsuit after another.

Last week, the EEOC continued its trend and filed 3 ADA lawsuits — all for failure to accommodate. Check out the EEOC website (eeoc.gov) to review the cases of: EEOC v. McKinney Griff, Inc. dba Merritt Restaurant and Bakery; EEOC v. Walgreen Co.; and EEOC v. OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC d/b/a Outback Steakhouse.

In all three situations, the employers terminated a disabled employee (seizures, diabetes and a brain injury) rather than make any attempt at a reasonable accommodation. Often, this failure stems from not knowing what it means to have an interactive discussion regarding possible reasonable accommodation. HR teams and managers need to understand the mechanics of spotting disability issues and having reasonable accommodation discussions. Given the broadened scope of disability protection, the ADA will continue to be a source of conflict and litigation for the next few years unless you train your workforce

Click here to download the ADA webinar presentation.

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Aug
08

California Passes Another Compliance Training Mandate!

by Janine Yancey

For those of you who haven’t heard, California passed another training mandate for all retailers and manufacturers with global sales of over $100 million.

Under SB 657 (which goes into effect January 2012), companies will have to show that they’ve trained all procurement managers, buyers and related supply chain staff on:

Defining Slavery and Human Trafficking
Identifying red flags that are common in slavery and human trafficking
Mitigating the risk of human trafficking in the supply chains

Don’t fear. emTRAiN has many customers who need to comply with this newest training mandate, so we’re quickly creating a course to meet legal requirements that you’ll be able to launch and track from your Dashboard just like our other courses.
Email us for more information if you would like at info@emtrain.com

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Jul
25

Massive, Record-Breaking Sexual Harassment Verdict in Illinois

by Janine Yancey

A jury rendered what appears to be the largest sexual harassment verdict in history last month in Illinois — a $95 Million Dollar award to a single plaintiff, Ashley Alford. The loser in the case was Aaron’s Inc., a rent-to-own retailer. Ms. Alford alleged that her manager made suggestive comments, touched her inappropriately and sexually assaulted her. She reported this conduct to her supervisor. She even called the company’s HR hotline to complain as well. But . . . the company took no action.

The manager also sexually assaulted the plaintiff and criminal charges are pending against him.

Not surprisingly, the employer is appealing this record-setting verdict. Chad Strickland, the company’s VP of human resources, said “Aaron’s is extremely disappointed with the jury’s verdict and believes that the award does not accurately reflect the evidence that was presented at trial. We feel strongly that this verdict is the result of a decision made by a classic runaway jury, and because of that we are confident that the damages will be greatly reduced.”

The extreme nature of the award shows the jury’s anger towards the employer. By not acting promptly to investigate the plaintiff’s complaint and terminate this manager, Aaron’s violated the law and now will be remembered in infamy as being on the losing end of a world record-setting verdict.

While this lawsuit reflects an extreme transgression, juries will get angry and vote for big award for any transgression where the employer ignores complaints and fails to take action. Do your company a favor and ensure your workforce is trained on harassment prevention and how to report and respond to harassment situations.

Demo emTRAiN’s Preventing Harassment Course

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