"This & That" Tuesday: Immigration Discrimination, "Gay" Discrimination

 

April 7, 2015

 

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

 

Announcements

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

April 21, 2015

2015 Labor Law Update & Paid Sick Leave

Institute of Management Accountants, LA chapter

Information can be found on my website.

 

April 28, 2015

2015 Labor Law Update & Paid Sick Leave

Pomona Rotary Club

Information can be found on my website.

 

June 2, 2015

Understanding and Building a Disciplinary Process

Compliance Key

Webinar

Information can be found on my website.

 

June 4, 2015

East SGV CPA Group

2015 Labor Law Update

Information can be found on my website.

 

June 9, 2015

South Pasadena Rotary Club

The New Paid Sick Leave Act

Information can be found on my website.

 

Justice Department Settles Immigration-Related Discrimination Claim

The Justice Department reached an agreement today with Potter Concrete, a company based in Dallas, resolving claims that the company engaged in a pattern or practice of document abuse in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

 

The department’s investigation, which was initiated based on a referral from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), concluded that Potter Concrete subjected non-U.S. citizen new hires to unlawful demands for specific documentation issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in order to verify their employment eligibility, while U.S. citizens were permitted to present their choice of documentation.  The investigation also revealed that Potter Concrete selectively utilized E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of individuals they knew or believed to be non-U.S. citizens or foreign born.  The INA’s anti-discrimination provision prohibits employers from placing additional documentary burdens on work-authorized employees during the hiring and employment eligibility verification process based on their citizenship status or national origin.

 

Under the settlement agreement, Potter Concrete will pay $115,000 in civil penalties to the United States; undergo training on the anti-discrimination provision of the INA; revise its employment eligibility verification policies; and be subject to monitoring of its employment eligibility verification practices for one year.

 

Lesbian Chef’s $1.6M Discrimination Award Upheld

The owner of a Mexican restaurant in New York City got a serious blow from a state appellate court over his treatment of a lesbian chef. Gloria's Tribecamex and its owner, Edward Globokar, were ordered to pay Mirella Salemi $1.6 million in damages.

 

The case rests upon incidents that occurred between 2004 and 2007 at another Mexican-themed restaurant owned by the defendants where Salemi was employed. Salemi claimed she was forced to attend weekly prayer meetings at work where homosexuality was described as sinful. At these meetings, Globokar would repeatedly call homosexuality a sin, and say that ‘gay people’ were ‘going to go to hell.”

 

Salemi sued, claiming discrimination. A lower court awarded her $1.6 million in late 2012. The defendants appealed, and lost at the appellate level, where the verdict and the amount of the award were upheld last month.

 

Factoids

• The average full time salaried employee works 50 hours per week, up from 47 hours in 2007.
• The average worker aged between 25 and 54 worked 8.8 hours per day.
• It will cost between $245K and $304K to raise a child born in 2013 to age 18.
• FLSA (wage & hour) suits reached an all-time record high for 2103-2014 (8126 cases, up by 5%)  
• 41% of small company retirement plan sponsors do not know their fee arrangement with their plan advisor

   

Quote of the Blog

“When you aim for perfection, you find out it is a moving target.”

~George Fisher~