Showing 4 posts in Racial Equality.

Hinshaw's 12 Days of California Labor & Employment Series – Day 3: Racial and Ethnic Diversity at the Forefront for California-Based Publicly Held Corporations

In the spirit of the season—and keeping some semblance of normal—we are using our annual "12 days of the holidays" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on California employers. On this third day of the holidays, my labor and employment attorney gave to me: three French hens and AB 979.

This bill is reminiscent of one we kicked off our annual series with back in 2018, which came in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The bill, SB 826, required any publicly held corporation with its principal office located in California, to include at least one woman director on the corporation's Board of Directors by the end of 2019. It further provided that, by the end of 2021, corporations with five or more directors must include at least two female board members, and corporations with six or more directors must include at least three female board members. While SB 826 addressed gender equality, AB 979 focuses on racial and ethnic diversity. More ›

Hair today...discrimination case tomorrow?

California is well on its way to unanimously becoming the first state to ban discrimination in schools and workplaces based on hair/hairstyles, hair textures, and protective hairstyles such as twists, braids, updos, and wigs. The CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Act would prohibit employers and schools from enforcing discriminatory grooming, hair keeping policies, or dress codes that could disproportionately affect people of color. Going forward, California employers should look at their related polices to ensure they are non-discriminatory and do not specifically target hairstyles or hair textures of people of color. More ›

Failure to Timely Report Race Harassment Not a Bar to Trial

Employers frequently raise failure to report harassment as a defense in Title VII and related state cases. After all, how can you end harassing behavior if you are not aware of it. As the Eleventh Circuit reminded us earlier this week, that defense breaks down if the employer is aware of the conduct. More ›

New York Crosses the Finish Line to Ban Inquiries into Applicant Wage History

On May 4, 2017, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law, Intro No. 1253-2016, amending the New York City Human Rights Law to restrict an employer’s ability to ask job applicants about their compensation history during the hiring process. The law will take effect on October 31, 2017. More ›