Next week, one of my colleagues, Peter Murphy will be at the Connecticut Bar Association to present a program entitled “CHRO 101 – From Complaint to Public Hearing”. Full details are available at the CBA website.
The program includes a discussion of
After my post last week on discrimination statistics (and the lack thereof of CHRO statistics that were publicly available), the CHRO was kind enough to release some additional statistics to me that hadn’t been posted on its website and hadn’t been released publicly before.
My sincere thanks to CHRO Principal Attorney Charles Krich for the
The Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities has selected a new Executive Director from within. Tanya Hughes — who had been serving as the Interim Executive Director — has been formally named the new CHRO Executive Director.
According to a press release issued by the CHRO on Thursday morning:
The nation’s first state-sponsored
Every once in a while, it’s worth taking a look at statistics in the employment law arena to get a sense of trends with the law and what employers should focus on.For those that have been paying attention, retaliation claims are now the most filed type of charge filed at the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee nationwide.In fiscal year 2012 (the last publicly available data), there were 99,412 charges filed (down from a peak of 99,922 in 2010). Of those, 38.1% of charges were retaliation-based — up from just 22.6 percent in 1997.
Race discrimination claims — while up in terms of raw numbers from 15 years prior — are actually at their lowest levels percentage-wise in the last 15 years. Instead, national origin claims and religion claims have each risen a few percentage points over the last 15 years — though even national origin claims seemed to have peaked in 2009.
Not surprisingly, in light of changes that were made to the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2009, disability discrimination claims are up sharply the last few years from 14,893 claims in 2005 to 26,379 claims in 2012.
Equal Pay Act claims — which some people projected would increase dramatically after the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 — have remained fairly flat the last few years. Up a little, but just by a few dozen. Not enough to really move the needle on such claims.
In Connecticut, unfortunately, the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) has had issues with its computer system and hasn’t been able to update its statistics since 2010.
(The EEOC does keep some statistics on claims are filed in Connecticut with the EEOC itself, but because those claims are typically investigated and handled through the CHRO, the EEOC statistics are really incomplete.)
But the CHRO statistics are hopefully coming soon.Continue Reading Employment Law Statistics Tell Part of a Story; Still Waiting for CHRO
A federal bill banning workplace discrimination (known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act “ENDA) on the basis of sexual orientation cleared a key procedural hurdle last night as the Senate voted to begin debate on the measure, 61-30. Passage by the Senate is now expected later this week. (You can find my prior coverage of ENDA
In various posts, I’ve talked about how there is a slow but increasing trend to encourage employers to “ban the box” when it comes to job applications. That catchy (yet non-descriptive phrase) refers to a checkbox that is often found on job applications that asks applicants if they have any criminal convictions.
The news this
My colleague, Peter Murphy, penned a great article in this week’s Connecticut Law Tribune discussing the uptick in cases challenging dress codes.
His conclusion?
As these cases demonstrate, employers remain free to establish dress codes or appearance standards that are appropriate for the nature of their business — whether chinos and golf shirts at
As the temperature starts to dip this week and our thoughts start turning from fall to winter, so starts slow climb up the absenteeism ladder.
Around many workplaces, flu shot clinics are starting to pop up. Not surprisingly, studies show that flu shots reduce the rate of absenteeism. (Employees who get vaccinated get sick
Back in August 2012, I reported on a new lawsuit filed by the Town of Shelton which claimed that the CHRO was improperly denying Shelton its Due Process Rights by not allowing a federal jury trial on related federal claims and by not providing for discovery. Ultimately, it challenges Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 46a-58 under
And I’ve been locked out
And I know we’re through
But I can’t begin to face up to the truth…..
— Crowded House, “Locked Out” (1993)
So, here we are. The (partial) government shutdown began early this morning. And suddenly, we’re locked out of national parks and many government services.
But how does this impact