Title 7 Archives - The Poliquin Firm

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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Wrongful Termination

Ron Poliquin — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 18:54:28 +0000

Is there some kind of law that protects employees generally from wrongful termination?

Wrongful Termination

Ron Poliquin, DoverLawOffice.com, I am your Delaware Employee Rights Attorney.

I get a lot of questions regarding what the heck is wrongful termination? Is there some kind of law that protects employees, generally, from wrongful termination? Well, it is a common question. Lawyers sometime throw that out there, a wrongful termination. You hear it a lot in the media, but there's actually no cause of action called a wrongful termination. We in Delaware are an at-will employment state. What does that mean? At-will employment state means you can get fired for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all, as long as it's not for an illegal reason. There is no cause of action called wrongful termination. That is kind of this umbrella term that we use for other statues that have been created.

We already know you can be terminated for good reason, bad reason, for no reason at all, and most employees when they get fired, guess how much they get? Donut Babe. Alright? They don't get anything. Most people get a kick in the butt and they take the little box out and they go to the parking lot and have to look for another job. Most people do not have any rights after they get employed. There are exceptions, notable exceptions, exceptions to the rule. Most employment cases come under the broad statute of Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate based on sex, race, color, national origin and religion. Some states statutes have expanded that. In Delaware that also means sexual orientation.

So basically, you can get fired for good reason, bad reason, no reason at all, as long as its not for an illegal reason, meaning something based on sex, race, color, national origin or religion. A lot of times that also means for retaliation. There is also a whistle-blower statute, meaning if you report somebody that's breaking the law or somebody that's illegally funneling money of some kind - there's also whistle-blower statute protection. There are also common law things; breach of good faith and fair dealing. I'm not going to get in that too much, that is a whole other video. So, for the most part, Delaware is an at-will employment state, but you cannot be terminated or illegally treated for sex, race, color, national orientation, religion, or some kind of other protected status. Also, there are claims involving breach of good faith and fair dealing. Which basically, we cannot be terminated for a fraudulent reason. Promissory estoppel could be another employment term, being there is a promise and there's a breach of that promise and there's damage as a result of that promise.

So anyways, that's generally the umbrella of employment law on why people get illegally terminated. The term unlawful termination or wrongful termination is not actually a real legal term. If you want to talk more about your rights, I'd be happy to talk about it. This is Ron Poliquin, your employment lawyer DoverLawOffice.com.

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