12/11/2009
When we think of a hostile work environment based on sex, we often assume an overtly sexualized workplace. Transgressions such as viewing porn, posting lurid photos on cubicle walls and demanding sexual favors are clearly sexual in nature. But those aren’t the only things that can make an environment sexually hostile. Employees can launch a claim of hostile environment if they can show they were forced to work in a sexist environment.
12/11/2009
Employees who manage to win both disability retirement benefits and an ADA case get the best of all possible worlds—a regular retirement check, plus a lump-sum jury award for their employer’s failure to accommodate their disability. Employees can pursue both claims if they can show that, with an accommodation, they could have performed their jobs. But if it’s very clear from their testimony in the disability retirement case that they couldn’t possibly perform their jobs under any circumstances, then their ADA cases will be dismissed.