Category: Retaliation Law

EEOC employment lawyers busy this month on employment discrimination (2017)

EEOC lawyers have had a busy September starting and settling employment discrimination lawsuits. The EEOC accepts charges of employment discrimination in Fort Worth and Dallas at the Dallas, Texas office. Employment lawyers in Texas represent employees in these types of employment discrimination lawsuits. The following is just the listing of the EEOC activity reported in […]

EEOC employment lawyers busy this month on employment discrimination (2017) Read More »

Are EEOC complaints confidential in Texas?

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law, Wrongful Termination Law

Employees suffering employment discrimination often worry about the effects of reporting employment discrimination to the EEOC. This is especially true for employees who still work at the job where discrimination occurs. Retaliation for complaining about employment discrimination is a real and serious concern. This concern may lead workers to not contact the EEOC or an

Are EEOC complaints confidential in Texas? Read More »

Can my Texas employer fire me for doing what my manager told me to do?

Employee rights lawyer, Retaliation Law, Wrongful Termination Law

Here’s a tricky situation: you follow a specific instruction from your manager or a company policy. Then your employer fires you. Can this happen for following orders? Unfortunately, in most cases the answer: yes. Seems bizarre–and it is–but this is the nature of the at-will employment relationship. In an at-will employment relationship the employer can discipline an employee,

Can my Texas employer fire me for doing what my manager told me to do? Read More »

EEOC hits Dunkin Donuts franchise for $330k in sexual harassment suit

Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

Last week the EEOC settled a Title VII sexual harassment and retaliation suit against multiple Dunkin Donuts franchises. The $330,000 settlement, which covers multiple employees, includes a multi-year training and oversight provision to avoid similar events in the future. The EEOC press release describes the events alleged in the lawsuit as follows: Hillcrest Marshall violated federal law by

EEOC hits Dunkin Donuts franchise for $330k in sexual harassment suit Read More »

“Like” Off: Facebook “Like” still at issue under NLRB social media policy

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law

In 2012 the National Law Review published my article discussing the relationship between social media and workplace harassment. In that article, I discussed a case arising from the National Labor Relations Board in which two employees were fired for allegedly violating the employer’s social media policy prohibiting employees from disparaging the employer online. Here, the employer

“Like” Off: Facebook “Like” still at issue under NLRB social media policy Read More »

Can you count on the EEOC to file a lawsuit for you in Texas? Fort Worth employment lawyer discusses

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its 2014 performance report recently with some disappointing results about how charges of discrimination (the employment discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC) resolve. Of the 88,778 private sector charges filed the EEOC “resolved” 87,442 of those charges. That does not mean a favorable result occurred for the charging

Can you count on the EEOC to file a lawsuit for you in Texas? Fort Worth employment lawyer discusses Read More »

Can my employer disagree with my doctor’s FMLA certification?

Employee rights lawyer, Retaliation Law

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), eligible employees of covered employers can request up to twelve weeks of medical leave within a one year period for a serious medical condition of the employee or a family member as well as the birth or adoption of the employee’s child. When the employee requests FMLA leave

Can my employer disagree with my doctor’s FMLA certification? Read More »

Should I talk to an attorney before I go to the EEOC in Texas?

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

If you believe you are the victim of employment discrimination then in most cases you need to file a complaint with the EEOC or Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division. This complaint is known as a charge of discrimination. A charge of discrimination invokes the agency’s power to investigate your claims. If they find probable cause

Should I talk to an attorney before I go to the EEOC in Texas? Read More »

Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation claims apply to employees of contractors

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law

Sarbanes-Oxley, passed in 2002 in the wake of the Enron disaster, includes a protection in Section 806 that employees of a publicly traded company from retaliation for whistleblowing on accounting fraud and other prohibited acts under Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). In the past, most courts held that the employees of contractors to public companies did not enjoy

Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation claims apply to employees of contractors Read More »

Overtime pay with personal leave in Texas

1 Comment / Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law, Wage & Hour Lawyers

Overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Texas Payday Law result in improper wage calculations in employment law. Some employers engage in illegal acts to avoid paying overtime. Many fail to fully understand when they must pay overtime and how the calculation of overtime pay must occur. (For a primer on overtime pay,

Overtime pay with personal leave in Texas Read More »

Dallas woman wins appeal on retaliation claim for complaining about sexual harassment

Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

This Dallas employment retaliation case is best summed up in three letters: WTF? Not only are the facts of the case full of WTF; but the decision of our federal District of Northern Texas keeps up with the conduct of the alleged harassers. The lawsuit Royal v. CCC&R Tres Arboles, L.L.C. is a local Dallas decision on a significant legal

Dallas woman wins appeal on retaliation claim for complaining about sexual harassment Read More »

I think I am being discriminated against at work what should I do?

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

If you believe you are being subjected to an illegal form of employment discrimination then you need to act quickly to preserve your claims. If you find that your workplace situation appears to fall into one or more of the types of prohibited discrimination then you should take the following steps: Dallas employment lawyer on employment discrimination

I think I am being discriminated against at work what should I do? Read More »

When can I sue for employment discrimination?

Texas and federal discrimination law prohibit only certain types of employment discrimination. An employee may file a charge of discrimination or lawsuit on employment discrimination only for a trait protected by law. If your employer takes action against your job or compensation then you must show the employer did so because you have a protected trait. The traits

When can I sue for employment discrimination? Read More »

Employment discrimination and job reinstatement

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

Often Texas employees who are victims of employment discrimination lose their jobs through either the employer’s direct efforts to terminate the employee or by the employer’s indirect efforts to harass the employee until he or she feels like there is no choice but to quit (this is known as constructive termination). In most cases, employees

Employment discrimination and job reinstatement Read More »

A Facebook “Like” is protected First Amendment Speech

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law, Wrongful Termination Law

This week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals published its decision in Bland v. Roberts, a First Amendment case regarding a Facebook “like”. I wrote about this case last year in my National Law Review article on social media and harassment. I contended that a “like”, “retweet” or “+1” is evidence of employee support of employment-based

A Facebook “Like” is protected First Amendment Speech Read More »

What to do if I am an employer and somebody is being harassed or discriminated against at work in Texas?

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

As a Dallas employment lawyer, I often write about what Texas employees should do to protect their rights but employers also play a role in ferreting out workplace harassment and discrimination. You might own a business or work in human resources and confronted with a situation where an employee alleges harassment or discrimination in the workplace. Obviously,

What to do if I am an employer and somebody is being harassed or discriminated against at work in Texas? Read More »

What is cat’s paw liability in employment discrimination litigation?

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

Cat’s paw liability is the theory that when upper management elects disciplinary action, including terminations, based upon information provided by a lower level of management where the lower level manager took provided the information based on discriminatory animus, the discriminatory animus is inferred on upper management. Managers cannot use human resource procedures to discriminate in

What is cat’s paw liability in employment discrimination litigation? Read More »

Employment discrimination still a widespread problem in Texas

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), responsible for regulating against employment discrimination, reported several key cases in July 2013. EEOC’s reports discrimination in multiple forms, including: racial discrimination; sex discrimination; disability discrimination; religious discrimination; and age discrimination. Pro-employer groups continue to assert decreasing employment discrimination; but the ongoing anti-discrimination work of the EEOC and Texas

Employment discrimination still a widespread problem in Texas Read More »

EEOC New Anti-Discrimination Enforcement Priorities

Age Discrimination Law, Disability Discrimination Law, Racial Discrimination Law, Religious Discrimination Law, Retaliation Law, Sex Discrimination Law

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its new Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP) this spring that includes six key anti-discrimination priorities that the agency will be focusing on through 2016. These new anti-discrimination enforcement priorities reflect the intent to increase litigation as both a deterrent effect on employers to increase their anti-discrimination policies to prevent

EEOC New Anti-Discrimination Enforcement Priorities Read More »

If I serve in the military what rights do I have to my civilian job?

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law

In 1994, following the first war with Iraq, the federal government enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) to protect the civilian jobs of uniformed service members. The purpose of this law is to protect service members who perform both short term service, such as reservists who commit a weekend

If I serve in the military what rights do I have to my civilian job? Read More »