Discrimination & Harassment

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In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently clarified the circumstances under which an employer may deny a request for a religious accommodation under Title VII.  Specifically, in Groff v. DeJoy, the Court held that in order to justify denying a request, an employer must now demonstrate that granting a religious accommodation would…

Many employers require their workers to sign arbitration agreements at the outset of employment, and it’s no wonder why.  These agreements allow employers to require arbitration of many employment-related disputes, rather than participate in lengthy, expensive lawsuits.

On February 10, 2022, the United States Senate passed a bill that will prohibit this practice with respect…

As we shared in past blog posts, the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act (“MMA”) contains an anti-discrimination provision, that prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee “solely on the basis of such employee’s status as an individual who is certified to use medical marijuana.”  Earlier this year, we also shared that the Superior Court confirmed that…

The Biden Administration announced earlier this summer that Long COVID may qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Rehabilitation Act and several other federal statutes offering protection for disabled individuals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has defined “Long COVID” as new or ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 that can…

An employee may sue an employer under the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act (“MMA”) for discrimination because of the employee’s status as an individual who is certified to use medical marijuana. This was the recent holding of the Superior Court in the case of Moses Taylor Hospital v. Palmiter.  As you may recall, we discussed…

On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Bostock v. Clayton County and two related cases that presented the same issue: whether employment discrimination on the basis of an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity constitutes unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  In…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated the guidance document titled “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act and Other EEO Laws” on April 23, 2020 to address employer testing for COVID-19 in the workplace.  The EEOC’s guidance document is a series of technical questions and answers geared…

Two years ago, the first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Pennsylvania.  Since that time, well over a hundred thousand Pennsylvania residents have become certified to use medical marijuana, additional conditions were added to the listed of qualifying serious health conditions and employers started to field questions from employees who wanted to use (or already were…

Prior to July 2nd, New Jersey’s Medical Cannabis Act lacked protections for employees’ off-duty medical marijuana use.  Indeed, last year the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey held that nothing in the Medical Cannabis Act “requires an employer to waive a drug test as a condition of employment for federally-prohibited…