employment law

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a two lawsuits against companies in Michigan and Florida for allegedy discriminating against transgender employees, the Los Angeles Times reports: "Both lawsuits cite violations under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which offers protections against sexual discrimination, in a move that marks the first time the federal government has used the law to protect transgender workers against private companies, according to the EEOC."

Two years ago, the EEOC ruled for the first time that discrimination against transgender employees is covered by the Civil Rights Act, the LA Times further reports.

According to the Huffington Post, "the proportion of coal miners who suffer from an advanced form of black lung disease has skyrocketed in central Appalachia in recent years, according to experts with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health." Health officials says the nearly 10-fold increase is likely due to "workers' overexposure to coal dust, with many miners now working longer hours, or an 'increased toxicity' in dust composition -- that is, even unhealthier air in today's mines," Huffington Post further repors.

The Wall Street Journal reports on research that shows employers are using social media to look up job candidates and then discriminating against them. One lawyer advised that could be illegal. The WSJ reports: '"I advise employers that it's not a good idea to use social media as a screening tool," said James McDonald, a partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP who specializes in employment law. "You need to control the information you receive so you're only getting information that is legal for you to take into account."'

The prognosis is good for the bipartisan passage in the U.S. Senate of legislation that would make it illegal for employers to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, the Associated Press reports. However, it is unclear if the legislation would even be taken up in the House of Representatives.

The bill has bipartisan support. "In a sign of the times, the anti-bias legislation has traditional proponents such as the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay and lesbian advocacy group, plus the backing of a relatively new group, the American Unity Fund. That organization has the financial support of big-name Republican donors — hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer, Cliff Asness, Dan Loeb and Seth Klarman — and former GOP lawmakers Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Tom Reynolds of New York," the AP also reports.

Employees who are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgendered do not have any federal protection from being discriminated against by their employers. The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate is going to take up a bill that would bar employment discrimination against Americans who are LGBT. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act "would prohibit discrimination by nonreligious entities against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity," The Washington Post reported. The bill, however, has been introduced several times in past legislative sessions and not gotten anywhere.

A plaintiff's lawyer argues that there was no protection for his client, who worked for an American Indian casino, from allegedly being "repeatedly subjected to offensive and explicit conduct based on race, sex and national origin, including being  'dry humped' by his supervisor, having KKK photos emailed to him, being called a Nazi, being given the 'Heil Hitler' salute, having to hear about his supervisor’s sexual acts and hearing customers being racially denigrated," according to this piece in the San Francisco Examiner. Any sovereign nation sets its own rules on what protection should be given from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability and other characteristics, and the attorney argues against "using the concept of national sovereignty to deny people their basic rights to safety and fair treatment. Ironically, Native Americans, themselves the subject of genocide and centuries of state-sponsored discrimination and civil-rights abuse, exempt themselves from adhering to any legal protections against discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, etc."