At a time when the unemployment rate for returning veterans has been showing signs of hope, a growing number of companies are breaking the laws that protect the employment of returning veterans.

Vets, including National Guard and Reserve soldiers, have faced numerous deployments and calls to duty during the years of war over the past decade, and many have returned to find they no longer had jobs they expected to return to. Some contend they have faced discrimination on their return, or retaliation for their military service.

Such actions are illegal under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, which is supposed to help protect veterans when they return to the workforce.

But some employers either don’t care about the law or are ignorant of it.

“The number of new USERRA cases handled by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veteran Employment and Training Service (DOL VETS) and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) rose 10 percent from 1,438 to 1,576,” according to Department of Labor data provided by employment law firm Tully Rinckey, one of the top firms in the country focused on veteran workplace rights. (more…)

If women stopped getting pregnant the world would eventually cease to exist. So why is it so hard to get equal rights for the pregos among us already?

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was signed into law in 1978 but it seems that wasn’t enough to stop employers from discriminating against pregnant workers.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charges of pregnancy bias have been hovering at the 6,000 mark since 2007.

“A few employers have forgotten, or never learned, that it’s against the law to discriminate against women because of pregnancy,” David Lopez, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s general counsel, told me earlier this year during a public meeting about the problem.

So, what to do? What about yet another law? (more…)

Derrick Morgan, who has cerebral palsy, worked as a manager for a California McDonald’s since 2006 but when new management took over things changed drastically for him.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the new owners of the Oakhurst restaurant, Alia Corp., illegally demoted Morgan and forced him the quit.

“This is a case where the company illegally stripped a well-qualified worker of his ability to earn a living due to misperceptions about his disability,” said Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Los Angeles District Office.

Clearly there’s a problem in this country when it comes to employing individuals with disabilities. The unemployment rate for this group in March was 15.2 percent, almost double to the 8.1 percent rate for those without disabilities. And some experts have told me they suspect the joblessness among those with disabilities is much higher because many leave the labor force out of frustration.

And charges of disability discrimination filed with the EEOC have been rising steadily for the last decades, hitting a record 25,742 last year.

Morgan’s case goes to show that some employers are cool with employing disabled workers and some just don’t get it. Indeed, he was a valued employee to the previous owner.

It turns out there is a recipe that works when recruiting, hiring and keeping disabled workers, and a recent study sheds light on that approach. (more…)

There have been undercurrents of weight discrimination in the workplace for years, but a Texas hospital decided to go anti-fat full throttle.

A Texas newspaper uncovered the story recently reporting about a fat-adverse Texas hospital — Citizens Medical Center — and it’s unheard of policy of refusing to hire anyone with a body mass index of more than 35.

The policy, according to The Texas Tribune, states:

… an employee’s physique “should fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a healthcare professional,” including an appearance “free from distraction” for hospital patients.

“The majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance,” hospital chief executive David Brown said in an interview. “We have the ability as an employer to characterize our process and to have a policy that says what’s best for our business and for our patients.”

The hospital’s policy may cause outrage, but it’s an extreme example of an obesity bias that has been percolating in the nation’s workforces, starting with seemingly benign measures such as encouraging workers to walk at lunch. (more…)

Jen from Chicago got laid off from her job in marketing on Oct. 25 and gave birth to her son on Nov. 3.

It was odd, and potentially illegal, timing. You see, you can’t just get rid of an employee because she’s pregnant. I know some of you are thinking, “Duh Eve, tell me something new.” But pregnancy bias is still a big problem in this country, even prompting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to hold a special meeting on the issue last week, which I covered and wrote about.

I’m not saying everyone who gets canned while their pregnant is a victim of discrimination. But Jen had worked for the company for two years and even though the firm was recently acquired by a larger company she was surprised to get the ax.

Jen’s boss didn’t tell her he was showing her to door because of pregnancy. This is how it went down: (more…)

Did you tweet today about your sister’s heart attack, or write a Facebook post about the anniversary of your father’s death from lung cancer?

What if your boss sees it?

Yesterday the government released data on workplace discrimination and not surprisingly the numbers spiked last year.

Disability and age bias charges increased, and the total number of complaints hit a record at nearly 100,000 total filed, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That’s a continued influx of charges rising steadily for the last few years.

What I thought was most interesting about the data was a whole new category on the EEOC’s Charge Statistics list: GINA.

No it’s not bias against B actresses. It’s charges under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, aka GINA. (more…)

You’re all costing your employers too much money in health care costs and they’re done being nice about encouraging you to get healthier.

The wife of a Las Vegas casino dealer recently wrote us at MSNBC upset that her husband was asked by his managers at the hotel where he works to take a biometric health assessment test. Such tests typically include a health professional taking an employee’s blood and then having it tested for an array of ailments.

The reader wrote that her husband would be fined $500 if he refused to take the test. Such assessments, she added, were “an egregious violation of my husband’s medical privacy.” She’s contacted the Nevada Department of Labor and the ACLU in order to get help to fight the requirement.

Unfortunately, the couple may not have a legal leg to stand on if the dealer doesn’t allow them to prick his finger.

About 70 percent of larger employers now conduct employee health assessments, and more and more are considering taking the stick approach to workers who refuse to take such exams. (more…)

This week, Randolph Babbitt, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, resigned following fall out of his drunk-driving arrest.

It was a monumental fall from grace for a man who has had an impressive career. His FAA bio page has already been deleted.

It’s unknown what Babbitt’s drinking history is, but I thought this was a good time to look again at how drinking issues can impact your career.

If you’re caught doing something illegal as a result, in most cases, an employer can legally fire you. But if you’re an alcoholic, and your boss finds out, you may indeed have some protections against adverse actions by your employer, but they are limited, according to labor law experts.. (more…)

Trying to inspire workers to fight against real workplace or societal inequities can be an uphill battle. But complain about how women, minorities, or the disabled are depicted in TV shows, rap songs and movies, and you get a tidal wave of soldiers ready to charge against the entertainment industry.

I’m not saying such fights are useless, but sometimes they may end up reaping few rewards when it comes to discrimination in this country.

Recently, I’ve been getting tweets and emails of outrage from parents of disabled kids about what they see as slurs in the media; and today the big hubbub is feminist icon Gloria Steinem’s call for a boycott of a Playboy TV show. They’re all angry over how certain individuals are depicted and what’s said about them, but is their anger misguided, or better directed elsewhere? (more…)

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to work yesterday, casting a vote in Congress and inspiring the nation with her recovery after being shot in the head in January.

But she returns a very different person both mentally and physically. According to a story in the Arizona Daily Star yesterday,

she can’t use her right arm, so she must write with her left. Her right leg has little feeling in it. Her hair is just growing back in from her last brain surgery in May, and she’s still working on her conversation skills.

The bullet traveled clear through the left side of her head, and in surgery to remove the fragments, some of the congresswoman’s brain had to be removed, too.

Giffords has received the best medical care, and her employer, the U.S. government and the people of Arizona, have been nothing but supportive. Unfortunately, for most employees being able to continue working despite a serious chronic illness is rife with obstacles, including an increase in discrimination. (more…)