A recent complaint filed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs illustrates that it's not only federal contractors who need to be sure they comply with affirmative action requirements, but also those who contract with the federal contractors - a.k.a. "subcontractors."

The OFCCP's allegations against Maryland construction subcontractor Potomac ...

Do you need a reason to monitor your hiring and keep good records? Here's one.

Alleging race discrimination in the hiring process, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has settled with a unit of Norfolk Southern for $492,000. The OFCCP claimed that there were statistically significant differences in the hiring rates of whites and African-Americans into laborer ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been ordered to pay $938,771 in attorneys' fees to Freeman after getting its clock cleaned in that lawsuit it filed over background checks and disparate impact based on race and ethnicity. (Freeman had asked for more than $1.5 million.)

In better news for the EEOC, it settled its background-check case against BMW for $1.6 million ...

Is that "random" drug test selection really random?

Many employers -- particularly, those in the transportation industry -- use third party vendors to do the random selections for federally mandated drug and alcohol tests. I think it's a great idea, because it prevents employees from claiming that they were selected for "random" testing in a not-very-random process.

March 1

Dear Diary:

I start my new job as a Starbucks barista tomorrow. I am super-excited!!!!! I just hope I can handle the fast pace!

***

March 2

Dear Diary:

Wow! This job is hard! There is a lot to learn! But my supervisor, Xander, is super-nice (and cute, too!). When I accidentally gave a customer an Espresso Macchiato instead of a Cinnamon Dolce Latte, he said I shouldn't ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been on a tear this week, suing employers right and left, and getting some "wins" including a couple of big settlements . . .

Train-wreck boss. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) vacated a summary judgment decision for a Tex-Mex ...

You can't fix stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CosD7h2703o

Homo sapiens is fired for teaching about homophones (and his sister is a known thespian rumored to have dramaturgical aspirations). A teacher at a private language school in Utah says that he was fired by the director for posting about homophones on an educational blog, which the director allegedly believed was ...

Has the EEOC ever read this book? Maybe we should send them a copy.

By now, you have probably heard about the latest spanking administered by the Honorable Roger W. Titus, U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Maryland, to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- in a criminal and credit history case against Freeman, an event planning company.

Judge Titus granted the ...

Latest dispatches from the employment law front:

If you're going to be an SOB, make sure you're an SOB to everybody. A federal district court in Kentucky granted summary judgment to the employer in a sexual harassment case. The female plaintiffs alleged that a charlatan "turnaround specialist" hired by their CEO was not "motivated by sexual desire" but was simply abusive and ...

Who, if anybody, has the right to use the "N" word in the workplace? Should an employer treat African-Americans who use this language differently from non-African-Americans who do?

These are perennial questions that arise during harassment training, and there has been little guidance from the courts or the EEOC. The opinions of individual lawyers no doubt vary. My own advice has been ...