In the past year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has seen 7.2 % in discrimination claims being filed with agency.  Coverage here.  The EEOC handles charges under Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the Equal Pay Act, and GINA.  EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien stated, “Discrimination continues to be a substantial problem for too many job seekers and workers, and we must continue to build our capacity to enforce the laws that ensure that workplaces are free of unlawful bias.”  Detailed statistics on the charges filed with the EEOC are available on its website.  The numbers show marked increases in charges involving disability discrimination and all types of retaliation.

And, in other interesting EEOC news, the EEOC recently brought a lawsuit against Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, accusing it of discriminating against black job applicants through the way it uses credit histories in its hiring process.  The EEOC alleges that Kaplan’s rejection of job applicants based on their credit history has “disparate impact” on black applicants.

Categories: General News Tags: ADA, ADEA, Credit History, Disability Discrimination, Disparate Impact, EEOC, Equal Pay Act, GINA, Labor and Employment, Retaliation, Title VII

On December 22, Judge Voorhees in the Western District of North Carolina denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment in Fox v. Alexander County.  Terry Fox, the plaintiff, had been employed by Alexander County EMS since 1983 and had been promoted several times. In 2006, Fox was demoted and replaced by a younger worker, purportedly because of a slow response to a call.  The Judge, however, concluded that plaintiff had “ample evidence” that would allow a reasonable jury to believe that the reasons the county gave for demoting Fox – mainly that his team did not meet a standard response time on a call – were a pretext for age discrimination.

Accordingly, Fox’s claims for age discrimination under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA) and under North Carolina state law can proceed to trial.  This decision is a significant victory because North Carolina federal courts rarely rule for employment law plaintiffs when deciding summary judgment motions.  Fox is represented by Joshua Van Kampen.

More from the opinion below:  Read more…

Categories: Judicial Decisions, News of the Firm Tags: ADEA, Age Discrimination and Employment Act, Alexander County, Joshua Van Kampen, Labor and Employment, NCEPA, North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act, Pretext, Results, Summary Judgment, Western District of North Carolina

The federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision last month, in Shuler v. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, sharply restricting the scope of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which President Obama signed into law soon after entering office.  The Fair Pay Act extends the timely filing deadlines for certain discriminatory employment actions, specifically those involving “discrimination in compensation.”  The case involved a plaintiff who was denied a promotion in 1999 and 2000 and who claimed that those decisions, which were made because of age discrimination, had continuing effects on his compensation because the promotions would have come with raises.  With little analysis, the Court held that “discrimination in compensation” means “paying different wages or providing different benefits to similarly situated employees, not promoting one employee but not another to a more remunerative position.”  A close reading of the statute’s language, purpose, and legislative history might challenge the Court’s conclusion, and hopefully other courts will consider the question more carefully.

Categories: Judicial Decisions Tags: ADEA, Case Commentary, DC Circuit, Discrimination, Labor and Employment, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Statute of Limitations