"This & That" Tuesday: Retaliation, Pay Discrimination

August 25, 2015

 

Here is the latest issue of “This & That” Tuesday. I hope you find it to be informative and useful.

 

Announcements

Special Announcement: If you have Independent Contractors, you need to review the latest Department of Labor Guidelines. They can be found on my website under the Resoures page.  http://www.humanresources4u.com/resources

 

You can always check out my website for upcoming speaking engagements that are guaranteed to be of value to business owners or for a list of topics that I can speak on at Chambers, Clubs, Business Associations, etc. More details about the events, topics and Human Resources 4U, in general, can be found on my website.

 

Upcoming Events

August 27, 2015

Frederick’s Benefits

Leave of Absence Laws in CA

Information can be found on my website.

 

September 15, 2015

Irwindale Chamber of Commerce

Hiring Talent for Consistent Performance

Information can be found on my website.

 

Cardiac Science Corporation Pays $50,000 to Settle Retaliation Suit

Cardiac Science Corporation, an international manufacturer of diagnostic and therapeutic cardiology products based in Waukesha, Wis., pays $50,000 and furnish other relief under a consent decree entered by a federal court in a retaliation lawsuit brought by the EEOC.

 

According to the EEOC's suit Cardiac Science offered severance agreements to Lashell Love and 56 other employees it had decided to lay off. The agreements were identical except for each employee's name and the monetary amount offered. When Cardiac Science learned that Love had previously filed an EEOC charge against it, the EEOC said, it refused to give her the severance payments and benefits she had been promised. Additionally, the standard language in the severance agreements, the agency maintained, could be read as prohibiting those workers accepting severance from filing charges of discrimination in the future.

 

The EEOC filed suit after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The consent decree prohibits future discrimination and provides that Cardiac Science will pay Love $50,000, change the wording of its severance agreements, and train its managers and supervisors regarding employee rights and an employer's obligations under Title VII and the ADA.

 

No employer can take away a benefit whether it's vacation time, overtime pay, or severance pay, simply because an employee will not give up his or her federal statutory right to contact the EEOC and file a charge.

 

Royal Tire Pays $182,500 for Wage Discrimination against Female Executive

Royal Tire, Inc., a commercial and retail tire company based in St. Cloud, Minn., will pay $182,500 and be subject to detailed consent decree which resolves a lawsuit filed by the EEOC.

 

The EEOC's lawsuit charged that between January 2008 and June 2011, Royal Tire discriminated against its female human resources director, Christine Fellman-Wolf, by paying her lower wages than it paid a male employee who held the very same position. The EEOC's investigation showed that when Fellman-Wolf became HR director she was paid $35,000 less per year than her male predecessor and $19,000 less than the minimum salary for the position under Royal Tire's own compensation system. Fellman-Wolf complained about the disparity and asked to be compensated fairly, but Royal Tire did not make up the difference.

 

Pay discrimination is illegal under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which prohibits sex-based wage differentials for work requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility performed under the same or similar working conditions. It is also illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which generally prohibits employment discrimination-including in compensation-on the basis of sex.

 

In addition to substantial monetary relief to Fellman-Wolf, Royal Tire must comply with the three-year consent decree, which contains an injunction prohibiting the company from any future discriminating based on sex, paying men and women different wages for doing equal work, and retaliating against employees who exercise their rights under federal law. Additionally, the consent decree requires Royal Tire to evaluate its pay structure to ensure compliance with the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, and if it discovers employees who are being paid less than required by law, it must immediately raise the wages for those employees. The decree requires training for Royal Tire's managers and employees under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, and allows the EEOC to monitor Royal Tire's compliance with the decree. Royal Tire must report to the EEOC any complaints it receives about pay discrimination and provide information on how it handles those complaints.

 

Factoids

• Variable pay spending as a percent of payroll was at a record high of 12.7% in 2014.
• New research has found that the highest-performing employees work for 52 minutes straight followed by 17-minute breaks.
• From 2003 to 2013, the average single person health premium increase from $606 to $1170
• 83% of middle income boomers have no formal training on anything relating to retirement financial security

   

Quote of the Blog

“When the character of a person is not clear to you, look at the person’s friends.”

~Japanese Proverb~