Discrimination & Harassment

It’s March and things are heating up at the General Assembly so let’s get right at the bills that employers should be aware of.

Senate Bill 4 — which is deemed to be a Senate caucus priority bill, and thus something employers should pay attention to — redefines discrimination in a way that has never

This month, I published a new article for Practicing Law Institute Chronicle entitled Neurodiversity in the Workplace.

The article builds off a post I did last November by taking a look at some of the cases that have tackled the subject.

For those unfamiliar with the topic, I summarized it in the article as

Last week, Law360 quoted me in an article on marital status discrimination. (They timed it for Valentine’s Day; make of that what you will.)

The gist of the article is that marital status discrimination is something for employers to be mindful of.

And for that premise, I’m in agreement. Several states, including Connecticut, explicitly

Employment discrimination claims are often decided on the merits of the claim. Courts routinely have to answer the question: Did the employer discriminate on the basis of a protected class against an employee in terminating the employment of that individual?

But there’s another class of cases that can resolved on procedural grounds, often times in

Don’t believe the hype — Valentine’s Day may be for lovers, but for employers, it’s only trouble. Indeed, back in 2011, I highlighted the perils of Valentine’s Day for employers recapping various cases in which Valentine’s Day played a central role. Given the day, I thought I would reprint it today as a reminder —

A significant change has gone into effect New York City effective on November 22, 2023 with an amendment to the city’s Human Rights law.

The key focus of this amendment is the prohibition of discrimination based on an individual’s height and weight in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

The law prohibits NYC employers — that

The latest episode of “From Lawyer to Employer”, a Shipman podcast that I’m hosting this season, is now live and it’s all about accommodations and leaves in the workplace.

What we try to tackle, however, are the more challenging or unusual accommodation requests that employers sometimes get. Accommodating someone who is restricted in their

Continuing my series of posts arising from the ABA Labor & Employment Conference earlier this month, one of the most interesting programs I attended was a plenary session on neurodiversity in the workplace.

“Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one

For HR professionals and employment lawyers, the basics of FMLA and ADA is an oft-covered topic in law firm webinars.

But I’ve heard from plenty of people that they’re good with the basics; it’s the tricky issues that give them headaches.

With the acknowledgement that one person’s difficult question may be another person’s easy one

Years ago, I wrote about how state employment law imposed a duty to engage in an interactive dialogue with an employee who had a disability and was requesting a reasonable accommodation.

But what it does it truly mean to engage in an interactive process?

A new case from the Connecticut Appellate Court provides some