EEOC Filings Up, But Has Workplace Discrimination Increased? The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has just announced its charge filing and litigation statistics for Fiscal Year 2002, and charge filings are decidedly on the upswing. The EEOC reports that from September 2001 to September 2002, charge filings, the first step in bringing a claim of …
Substituting Lower Paying Jobs for Higher Paying Jobs Many employees, if asked, would say that an employer cannot just reduce your salary, or lay off a group of higher-paid employees in order to create new jobs at a lower pay scale. In most cases, however, they would be wrong. It’s a perfectly legal practice — …
New Developments at the EEOC for Disabled Employees The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the government agency that handles claims of discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, and disability, recently issued two important announcements related to disability discrimination. Last week, the agency announced that it had reached its largest …
Labor Department to Change Several Labor Law Regulations Changes to overtime calculations, job training program funding, and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are all in the works as the Bush Administration’s Labor Department (DOL) listens primarily to the concerns of businesses instead of workers and moves to change several decades-old employment regulations. (See AP …
Uninsured pay higher health care costs The results of a new study may come as no surprise to those who have ever had to pay doctor or hospital bills during a time they have been without health insurance. In a story featured in the Chicago Tribune, a study conducted by the Service Employee International Union’s …
Identity theft–from your employment records We’ve all been hearing a lot about the rise in identity theft, where someone takes your name, social security, birthdate, or other identifying information to establish credit, rent apartments, make large purchases, etc–it may have even happened to you. What you may not have heard is that the thief may …
Is Hollywood ageist? Some would say that’s akin to asking whether the sky is blue or the Pope is Catholic. However, challenging Hollywood’s practices in court may be more difficult to accomplish, as was demonstrated in two recent cases. It was announced today that a California state court judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit, …
Civil Rights Advocate & Pioneer Dies The life of a fierce civil rights advocate and pioneer ended all too soon last Friday as San Francisco attorney Mary Dunlap lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. (See her obituary here.) Mary, 54, most recently the director of San Francisco’s police watchdog agency, the Office of Citizen Complaints, …
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.
