12-05-2024

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill prohibiting transgender students in the state from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. The new law applies to students from kindergarten through college. While Ohio joins approximately twelve other states with similar laws, this law is broader than most because it includes college students and private schools.

12-04-2024

In 2019, Disney employee LaRonda Rasmussen filed a lawsuit asserting that the company paid her less than her six male coworkers in the same role. One of those men allegedly earned $20,000 more than her. She brought the gender discrimination suit under the California Equal Pay Act. The suit became a class action as 9,000 current and former female employees joined. The suit alleged that Disney engaged in an “enterprise-wide compensation policy” of paying women less than men “in part because Disney would base starting pay on prior salary, which historically includes gender-based disparities.”

12-03-2024

In 2020, Walmart’s CEO pledged action to create a more inclusive environment for its employees and to address systemic racism. Today, Walmart will no longer share data on LGBTQ inclusion, cut back on LGBTQ-themed merchandise, stop using DEI and Latinx in its communications, and end its center committed to racial diversity.

11-27-2024

According to AARP, about 57 million American workers do not have access to a retirement plan through their jobs. Policy experts predict this lack of savings will result in a retirement crisis. Only the highest-income baby boomers are expected to have a sustainable retirement income (CNBC.com). A bigger pool of older adults with insufficient income will burden states and their ability to provide public assistance. Relatively new state-sponsored plans may offer help.

11-26-2024

About 15 years ago, Google sent a confidential memo to its employees intended to help minimize worker comments that could incriminate the company (New York Times). The memo cautioned employees to think carefully about what they wrote in office communications. An internal instant messaging default setting was changed to “off the record.” The company also encouraged employees to put “attorney-client privileged” on many documents and add the company’s lawyers irrespective of whether legal questions were involved.

11-25-2024

Newly elected Sarah McBride is the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress. A Republican lawmaker wasted no time in targeting her. As McBride participated in the new member orientation before her January swearing-in, Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a new resolution that is all about McBride. Mace’s resolution would bar McBride, as a transgender woman, from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in the Capitol buildings.

11-21-2024

The Eleventh Circuit recently addressed the issue of whether Title IX gives employees a private right of action for employment discrimination for the first time. The court noted that its sister circuits have split on the issue. Title IX does not expressly create a private right of action for employees. Thus, the court considered whether Congress intended to imply such a right. This circuit court concluded that it was “unlikely.” It reached this conclusion because “Title VII’s express private right of action and Title IX’s implied right of action. . .provide overlapping remedies.

11-20-2024

Employees filed an NLRB complaint about Amazon’s 2022 conduct before a successful union election on Staten Island. It was the first Amazon warehouse to unionize. The company purportedly held hundreds of mandatory meetings with workers to discourage them from voting in favor of a union. Many large employers facing potential union campaigns have held similar kinds of meetings, including Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, and REI. The NRLB ruled 3 to 1 (along party lines) that employers cannot require employees to attend meetings where employers share their perspectives on the negative aspects of worker organizing. Amazon intends to appeal the NLRB’s decision.

11-19-2024

The University of Florida received a formal Title IX complaint against its head basketball coach, Todd Golden. The complaint describes sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, and stalking toward UF students. Golden did not comment directly on the UF’s Title IX investigation due to its confidentiality, but he did state that he retained a defamation attorney to assess potential claims.