employee rights Archives - The Poliquin Firm

Interview on Delmarva’s Talk Radio – Employment Law

Katherine Thomas — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 02:30:00 +0000

Ron Poliquin, talks with Delmarva's Talk Radio host Dan Gaffney on Delaware Employment Law and Discrimination. Ron shares some examples of cases where he represents employees fighting to protect their employee rights.

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Supreme Court Update

Katherine Thomas — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 12:22:25 +0000

Ron Poliquin, DoverLawOffice.com, your Delaware Employment Lawyer.

This is a special Supreme Court update regarding the rights of gays and transgenders regarding discrimination employment. The U.S. Supreme Court has decided by a six-to-three vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, known as Title 7, bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Supreme Court decided that gays and transgenders, under this law cannot be discriminated against in their employment. That means hostile work environment harassment or discrimination. In addition, gays and transgender individuals cannot be retaliated against for complaining about discrimination based on their status as gays or transgenders. All individuals cannot be retaliated against for participating in an investigation involving complaints of discrimination for gays and transgenders.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, an employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of different sex. Basically, what happened in this case, which was consolidated in Bostock V. Clayton County Georgia, I am going to give a brief description of the facts and scenarios in those cases.

In the Bostock case, Clayton County fired Gerald Bostock for conduct unbecoming of a county employee after he began participating in a gay softball league. Another case that was part of the suit was Altitude Express Inc. versus Zarda, which Altitude Express fired Donald Zarda within a few days of him identifying as gay. R. G. Harris Funeral Homes versus EEOC, the funeral home fired Aimee Stephens, who when was hired presented as a male, but later told her employer of her pans to live and work full-time as a woman. All three employees had sued under the federal statute.

The Supreme Court stated sex plays a necessary and indistinguishable role in the decision, exactly what Title 7 forbids in regarding all these decisions. It is a but-for cause, meaning but-for them being gay that they would not have been discriminated against. So, what does this mean to Delaware employees? Well, it means that it backs up the state law, which the state law already prohibits discrimination for transgender and gays and also gives employee attorneys, like myself, an extra weapon to go to Federal Court where there will be no doubt anymore on prohibitions against discrimination on the federal level against gays and transgenders.

Be your own best advocate. If you need to get expert advice on this, come see a qualified employment attorney such as myself. DoverLawOffice.com

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Pregnancy Rights for Women and Men

Ron Poliquin — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 06:37:09 +0000

Ron Poliquin DoverLawOffice.com, Delaware Employment Lawyer. We are going to be talking about pregnancy rights for women and men under the law, specifically, under federal law Title 7 the big one. The Civil Rights Act of 1962 is the federal law that protects employees from discrimination based on sex.

Now when we first encountered this issue in 1976, General Electric actually fired a married employee because she was pregnant. This case went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court held that discrimination, because of pregnancy, was not discrimination over an employee’s sex. This may surprise us today, however predictable, there was a firestorm of public outcry over this opinion.

That led to what we know as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. The Act added pregnancy and everything that goes with pregnancy, including breastfeeding to Title 7. Meaning that individuals could not be discriminated based on pregnancy. The Act provides that pregnant workers be provided opportunities only based on their ability or inability.

Just recently there was a jury, here in Delaware in the last year, that ruled that a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee must pay a Delaware woman $1.5 million in damages as related to workplace discrimination because they made it ultimately impossible for her to breastfeed her child at work. She was allowed only one hour of breastfeeding per shift. In addition, other co-workers complained about her taking breaks because she was breastfeeding. That created a hostile work environment which the employer did not remedy. So, that led to a large jury award in an employment case as of this year.

Now the question, might be surprising, can men be protected under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act? The Supreme Court has said YES! In the Newport News Shipbuilding case, the EEOC, Newport News gave pregnancy benefits including maternity leave to female employees but not male employees. Ultimately the Supreme Court decided that was a violation of Title 7. You need to be assertive if you’re being discriminated against because of pregnancy gender or if you have another employment issue please feel free to contact my office. Go to DoverLawOffice.com, this is Ron Poliquin thank you for your time.

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When Should You See An Attorney?

Ron Poliquin — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 16:53:25 +0000

Delaware Employment Attorney discusses, when should you see an attorney? How soon? The short answer is, as soon as possible regarding employment cases whether it be discrimination, whistle-blower or wage an hour.

When Should You See An Attorney?

Yes Ron Poliquin, DoverLawOffice.com, your Delaware Employment Attorney

Today’s subject is going to be, when should you see an attorney? How soon? The short answer is, as soon as possible regarding employment cases whether it be discrimination, whistle-blower or wage an hour. First of all, there is really harsh time restrictions, 300-days to file a charge of discrimination.

Secondly, the best time is to start early. The consultation is always confidential. Meaning just because you see an attorney and get information on the case, doesn’t mean that you’re going to take action. But once you wanna have the knowledge, you want to know what your rights are, know what you can do, once you get that knowledge, once know your rights, then you can decide whether to act on it or not. It is your decision, not the attorneys. I always tell people it’s your life, it’s your job, if you want me involved I’ll get involved. If you just want to know your rights that’s the best way to go. You don’t always have to act. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something. That is one of the parts of my job where I talk with my client about strategic moves regarding their employment.

Another issue that comes out is, how do you navigate employment law? The worse situation is when somebody comes to me too late, meaning if they have ducked taking action or not taken actions, which have jeopardized their rights under the law. I would equate it to a similar tool, you got a surgeon that comes in on a botched surgery and there trying to fix it, or somebody tried to put stitches on their own face. It is much easier for me to be in from the beginning and device a strategy and plan of action with that client then to come afterwards, after everything’s already been done and try to fix things.

Just on a legal sense, there are very specific defenses that an employer can raise later on if you did not go through the proper steps. A lot of companies have employment manuals. That employment manual usually has some kind of procedure on how to report discrimination or retaliation and what steps to take. If you do not go through those steps and you have been discriminated against, one of the defenses they may raise later on and probably will raise, is that we didn’t know about it. Okay, we just didn’t know about. I don’t care if you say, hey everybody in this company knows about it. It was common knowledge. If you do not go through their proper process, it could dismiss your case. It could be a major issue in your case.

So from the start, it’s important for you to strategize with an attorney on how do we notify the employer? How do we protect your rights? How do we not jeopardize your status in a company? How do we make sure that everyone is on notice of what’s going on without hurting you as an employment? I know as well as anyone that it is a sticky situation. It is a highly precarious situation when you are in an adverse situation, an adverse setting with your boss especially if it’s a small company. A small company you have a few employees, that is not that is not a predicament people want to be in. So, we have to take all that into account in how we set up your case from the beginning while trying to protect your job at the same time. You are going to need someone to help you navigate that maze of employment law.

Another issue is, there’s going to be the HR people. Are the HR people really looking out for your best interest or they just protecting the company? Especially if the harasser or the bad actor, the person that has discriminated against you is the head of the company or your boss. Who is really HR going to be looking out for? They have got somebody being paid $35,000 a year in HR, what kind of background do these people have? Do you just have one HR person? Is there just some secretary handling the HR? A lot of times this happens in the small homegrown companies. You have really no real HR Department and nobody looking out for your rights. Even in larger companies, who is HR looking out for?

You need to have an advocate for you, as an attorney somebody in the background that you can trust wholeheartedly. The only communications that are confidential are you and your attorney. Your communications with HR, your statements with HR, are not confidential. HR is great, but we have to make sure we take the proper steps, so the company remedies the situation and knows about it but also a lot of times, let’s not be naive, that doesn’t happen. I kind of touched on it before but you also want to give the company an opportunity to fix the situation. Maybe you’re in a hostile work environment, maybe there’s a way to notify the company have them address it properly and then you go on and prosper in that company. A lot of times that’s not possible but it does happen. Maybe they do the right thing. Maybe a company or your employer does the right thing and they should be given the opportunity to do that.

The issue here is that when you do not go see a qualified attorney early, you’re really jeopardizing yourself in the future on what you want, if you don’t know what you don’t know. I’m not saying an attorney is essential for everything. But certainly, go see an attorney to have a consultation, at least know what your rights are. Then you can take the proper steps from there. Thanks for the time, I’m Ron Poliquin, DoverLawOffice.com. Thank you!

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