Ohio Employment Lawyer Blog

Claims of workplace discrimination rose to an all-time high during 2011, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The federal agency says that nearly 100,000 complaints were lodged against employers, claiming workplace discrimination. The number of complaints last year was the largest in the 46-year history of the EEOC, but the number of 2011 job bias complaints only eclipsed the previous record number set in 2010 by 25 complaints.

The EEOC says that the most significant increase in employment discrimination complaints came in the area of religious discrimination. The agency says religious discrimination complaints rose by 9.5 percent last year, followed closely by a 5 percent jump in allegations of national origin discrimination.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on whether the Family and Medical Leave Act should provide protection to employees of state governments. The court heard argument on the employee rights issue on the same day that the court handed down its ruling that says ministers cannot sue their churches under employment discrimination laws.

The FMLA issue involved a claim brought against a state employer that had fired a worker for trying to take 10 days of FMLA leave. The man's doctor had ordered the worker to take two-weeks of bed rest to deal with hypertension and diabetes-related medical issues. When the employee sought FMLA leave to accomplish the bed rest, he was fired.

In the last post, this blog began a discussion of the latest U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an employment discrimination case. It was the first time the high court made a ruling on a legal concept known as the "ministerial exception" to U.S. anti-discrimination laws. A disability discrimination lawsuit was brought on behalf of a teacher who was fired in 2004 from a Lutheran school due to her illness.

Four years before her illness, the woman was promoted from a status as a "temporary" teacher to a "called" teacher and made her a minister through a vote of the church's congregation. The woman taught religion classes and occasionally led chapel services in her position with the institution.

The First Amendment and employment law collided recently in the Supreme Court in a lawsuit involving allegations of employment discrimination in a religious institution. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a case that may affect teachers working at parochial schools and religious institutions in Ohio, Kentucky and across the United States.

This blog discussed the workplace discrimination case after the high court heard oral argument last October. The court issued its ruling this week on the "ministerial exception" to employment discrimination laws.

Lower courts across the country previously returned conflicting rulings over whether the "ministerial exception" to employment discrimination laws should be recognized. The high court ruled that the First Amendment immunizes churches and their affiliated operations from antidiscrimination laws when the issue involves religious employees. But the ruling left many issues unresolved.

Many businesses in Ohio use criminal background checks during the job application process to screen potential employees. The practice is becoming more and more commonplace. However, does the use of a background check ever become an employment law issue? Improper use of pre-employment criminal background checks was the subject of a recent race discrimination lawsuit against a major cola-bottling company.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of more than 300 African Americans who were denied jobs under the background check policy used by the Pepsi Bottling Group, which is now a subsidiary of Pepsi Beverages. The former policy denied job offers for applicants who had previous arrests on their record, even if the applicant was never convicted of any offense.

This blog has discussed both pregnancy discrimination and disability discrimination issues. Federal law, under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, makes workplace discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions unlawful. Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace constitutes unlawful sex discrimination. Ohio law also considers pregnancy discrimination in the workplace as a form of gender discrimination.

Meanwhile the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and Ohio law protects disabled workers who are capable of performing the essential functions of their jobs, or prospective jobs, from disability discrimination. Disability discrimination laws require employers to provide physically or mentally disabled workers with reasonable accommodations to assist the workers in performing their job duties.

Now, an Ohio law professor is suggesting that pregnancy discrimination laws may not do enough to protect women in the workplace and argues that the federal government should expand the ADA, as amended, to include pregnancy as a disability deserving the protections of reasonable accommodations in the workplace.

Civil lawsuits can take a variety of paths. This blog has reported stories of lawsuits that have ended in a settlement and other stories about lawsuits that have gone before a jury. A former marketing executive for Skechers USA Inc. and the company have decided to try to mediate their differences in a wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit brought against the company by the former executive.

The judge presiding over the lawsuit placed the civil lawsuit on the calendar in late July for a status hearing concerning the mediation efforts. If mediation fails, the judge set a trial date for late August, 2012.

The marketing professional was reportedly hired in 2005 as a director in the areas of direct sales and Internet marketing for the shoemaking company. Her lawsuit claims that the shoe company experienced unprecedented sales growth and increased revenue during her tenure. The executive says she was wrongfully fired in July 2010.

Employment discrimination claims can be complex animals. Professionals who work in the world of academia know that college and university procedures can also be multifaceted. Certainly, colleges and universities in Ohio and northern Kentucky have intricate procedures and policies that are involved in tenure or disciplinary issues.

A former instructor from a university down South filed a racial discrimination and harassment lawsuit late last week that alleges the university engaged in "unlawful employment practices by failing to follow both the faculty handbook and university policy" when the instructor was fired earlier this year.