Jamie Leigh Jones’ legal fight against her former employer, KBR, a former Halliburton subsidiary, has attracted a great deal of attention, for the grave nature of her allegations against her employer. Jones says that she was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and then, when she reported the crime, she was placed under guard …
When you think you’ve suffered from discrimination or harassment at work, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is supposed to be there to protect your rights as a worker. But your experience with the EEOC can be shaped by the very first phone call. Right now, the EEOC is scrambling to cover the phones which …
It’s the time of the year where reporters break out that oft-used story generator: the yearly list. When it’s too hard to put together a real story, it’s always possible to pull a bunch of unrelated items together, give it a theme, and call it your 2007 list. I can’t say I blame them — …
Recently, a very important anniversary passed — with far too little fanfare. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) just turned 40 — the very age of those it operates to protect. While race and gender discrimination cases may get more publicity, the ADEA is a steady workhorse. We will all grow older, and with …
After about a nine-month hiatus, Today’s Workplace is back. Back in March, Workplace Fairness went through a restructuring which required laying off the staff and operating through the volunteer efforts of the board of directors. I am now the Program Director for Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, but serve on the Workplace …
At Workplace Fairness, we believe in a number of principles that we think make workplaces better: ensuring workers have adequate pay, benefits and health care, for example. But every once in a while, an idea comes along that is so basic that we wish we had thought of it first. Sometimes it’s just a matter …
A Basic Workplace Principle: No Assholes Allowed Read More »
With Valentine’s Day upon us, it’s the time of year where those of us who follow workplace trends are faced with reading a plethora of articles about workplace romance. To save you some time, here’s how most of these articles can be summed up: 1) Workplace romance: it happens, but it can be a bad …
Love and Marriage at Work (and a Little Sex Too) Read More »
This past week, the DC Court of Appeals upheld the ability of workers to fraternize. It’s a rather quaint word — fraternize — and you might even be forgiven for thinking it has something to do with the rowdy behavior in which some college-age men engage. But actually, it’s something that can — and should …
The U.S. Senate has just voted to raise the federal minimum wage. After smooth sailing through the House, as part of the “100 Hours” agenda, things hit a snag in the Senate. It’s all about taxes — isn’t everything? The Senate so far is seems unlikely to pass a clean bill that does nothing but …
Minimum Wage: Keeping It Clean, and Getting it Done Read More »
Since my post of January 4 about Maria Leavey’s untimely death, tributes to her have popped up around the Internet. One in particular makes the case even more strongly than I could before that her death may have been preventable — if only she had health insurance. Since health insurance also happens to be rising …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
