Latest news with #USEqualEmploymentOpportunityCommission
Hindustan Times
13-05-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Cancer patient denied remote work, fired weeks later for 'productivity issues': Report
'Most dehumanizing work experience,' says a US employee who was allegedly fired while undergoing cancer treatment – all because he failed to 'meet productivity standards' in between his chemotherapy sessions. The employee has filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), claiming he was unfairly terminated while undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Sharing his ordeal on Reddit, he said. 'Last fall, I was diagnosed with stage 2 lymphoma. After the initial shock, I immediately sat down with my manager at HealthPlus Insurance (where I'd been a claims analyst for 3+ years) to discuss accommodations during my treatment.' According to the employee, he requested to work remotely during chemotherapy to reduce the risk of infection, following his doctor's advice while providing full medical documentation to support this request. His manager initially appeared supportive, but things changed when the company's Human Resource department got involved. The employee alleges that HR denied his request, stating, 'Remote work is a privilege, not an accommodation.' This decision came despite the fact that, according to the post, the 'entire department had worked remotely' during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of granting remote work, the company allegedly offered him unpaid leave on chemotherapy days but required him to be physically present in the office on all other days. When he raised concerns that this violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the HR director allegedly responded, 'We employ 49 people, we're exempt from ADA requirements.' The employee claims he tried to comply with these terms, showing up to work even when he was experiencing extreme fatigue, nausea, and a weakened immune system. However, his performance suffered. After the second round of chemotherapy, he was placed on a "performance improvement plan" and later fired for 'failing to meet productivity standards.' He said the company even contested his unemployment claim by stating he was fired 'for cause.' The employee has since hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the EEOC. 'This company's entire business is HEALTH INSURANCE, but they couldn't show basic humanity to someone going through cancer treatment,' he wrote. The Reddit community reacted with anger and support. One user wrote, 'This company's entire business is HEALTH INSURANCE but they couldn't show basic humanity to someone going through cancer treatment.' Another commented, 'Absolutely disgusting behavior from a health insurance company of all places... denying you remote work when everyone else had it during COVID, then putting you on a PIP during chemo treatments is inhumane.' A third user stressed on the modern day work culture, saying, 'You are only as good as your last good day... When the nut cutting starts, none of that matters, you are expendable trash in their eyes.'
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Civil rights agency moves to fire judge fighting Trump's directives
The federal agency tasked with protecting workers' civil rights has moved to terminate a New York administrative judge who has resisted compliance with directives from the White House, including President Donald Trump's executive order decreeing male and female as two immutable sexes. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to Trump's order has moved to drop at least seven of its own pending cases representing transgender workers alleging discrimination, and is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, signaling a major departure from its prior interpretation of civil rights law. EEOC Administrative Judge Karen Ortiz, who in February criticized the agency's Trump-appointed head, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, in an email copied to more than 1,000 colleagues, on Wednesday was placed on administrative leave. She also received notice that the EEOC leadership sought to fire her, accusing her of profoundly unprofessional conduct. Of particular concern, your February email was ultimately circulated to multiple press outlets, potentially resulting in significant reputational harm to the agency," according to the notice, which included a PDF of a March 10 article by The Associated Press on Ortiz along with other materials. An EEOC spokesperson said on Monday that the agency had no comment on Ortiz's termination proceedings. Ortiz may reply to the dismissal notice within 15 days, and has the right to request a time extension, an attorney, a union representative, or another representative of her choosing, according to the document, which was acquired by The AP. This proposed action does not pertain to the content of your disagreement with the Agency policy, but rather the disrespectful and disparaging manner in which you have conveyed your message, the notice reads. A final decision will be issued after the reply period has passed. In her February mass-email criticizing the agency's efforts to comply with Trump's order, Ortiz wrote to Lucas that You are not fit to be our chair much less hold a license to practice law, adding: I will not compromise my ethics and my duty to uphold the law. The letter was leaked on Reddit, where it gained more than 10,000 upvotes. Many users cheered its author. The EEOC subsequently revoked her email privileges for about a week and issued her a written reprimand for discourteous conduct. Ortiz's actions were cited in an April 18 White House proposal aimed to make it easier to fire some federal workers. It listed Ortiz as an example of bureaucrats who use the protections the system gives them to oppose presidential policies and impose their own preferences." Ortiz said she was unfazed after being called out by the nation's highest office. Trump just gave me an even bigger platform, she said in an April 19 message to The AP. Since February, Ortiz said she has continued to raise the alarm and convey her opposition to the agency's actions, including in an April 24 email to Lucas and several other internal email groups with the subject line, If You're Seeking Power, Here's Power and a link to Tears for Fears' 1985 hit Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Take in the lyrics, Ortiz wrote to Lucas. Ponder what you're allowing yourself to be a part of. Her ability to send emails was again promptly revoked. Ortiz said she plans to fight the termination, and is strategising with her attorneys and union on how best to respond. I've been quite the thorn in the agency's side, she said Monday in a phone interview with The AP. But, you know, it's warranted. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bloomberg
17-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Agency Probes Workers' Bias Claims Against India's TCS
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating dozens of American workers' allegations that India's biggest IT outsourcer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., discriminated against them based on their race, age and national origin. The former employees are largely professionals from non-South Asian ethnic backgrounds over the age of 40, who say the company targeted them for layoffs but spared Indian colleagues, some of whom were working on H-1B skilled worker visas. They began filing complaints against TCS in late 2023.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump targeted 20 of the biggest law firms over their diversity programs. A GOP favorite is missing from the list.
The Trump administration's attack on law firms takes aim at their diversity initiatives. Jones Day, a firm cozy with Trumpworld, has been spared despite having many of the same programs. The inquiries to law firms echo a conservative activist who took down affirmative action. The Trump administration's all-out legal war extends beyond the courts. In addition to ferociously battling lawsuits over its sweeping policies, the government is targeting law firms themselves. In the latest salvo, Andrea Lucas, the newly minted acting chair of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sent letters to 20 of the country's most prominent big law firms with detailed questions about their diversity programs. The letters piled on top a pair of executive orders where Trump targeted Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, criticizing their diversity initiatives and complaining about how he believes the firms wronged him politically several years ago. One law firm absent from the target list is Jones Day. Jones Day has been closely intertwined with Trump's White House. The firm represented Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns and the Republican National Committee in 2024. Jones Day also appears to have many of the same diversity programs as the 20 law firms Lucas contacted. Lucas's letter inquired about each firm's hiring and promotion practices and affinity groups for underrepresented demographics. Under the header of "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," a 2024 Jones Day brochure on the firm's diversity touts how it "aggressively pursues" hiring and career development of lawyers from "historically underrepresented backgrounds." Every year, Jones Day hosts a "Diversity Conference" for first-year law students. This year's is scheduled to take place in April in Atlanta, Georgia, according to its website. The firm also has affinity groups that "celebrate diversity within our organization," including chapters for Black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ lawyers. A Jones Day representative didn't respond to requests for comment. Trump's executive orders restricted security clearance and access to government buildings for lawyers at Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss, which they say made it hard to represent their clients. The president also issued a separate memorandum suspending security clearances of any lawyers working at Covington & Burling who've helped former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought two now-dropped indictments against Trump. In her letters to the 20 law firms, which includes Perkins Coie, Lucas warned that the law forbade hiring or promotions "motivated — in whole or in part — by race, sex, or another protected characteristic." She also said employers are barred "from limiting, segregating, or classifying employees based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics" in a way that could deprive them of opportunities, including in affinity groups. A group of former EEOC commissioners asked Lucas to withdraw the 20 letters, saying she had "no authority" to grill the law firms. In a March 18 letter, they said Congress required investigations to be "confidential" so the EEOC could not "intimidate employers through public pressure." Through an EEOC spokesperson, Lucas, who Trump appointed to the commission in his first term, declined Business Insider's request for comment. At a New York University law school conference panel last year, Lucas said many employers are "dead wrong" about the legality of certain diversity initiatives. According to Lucas, the law forbids race or sex from being "part of the equation" at all, including for deciding who could attend career development or leadership programs. "I think it is a major blind spot for employers to not scrutinize DEI programs that fall outside of hiring, firing, and compensation decisions," she said. The language in Lucas's letters and public statements echoes arguments made by conservative activist Edward Blum, whose organization Students for Fair Admissions successfully persuaded the Supreme Court to end affirmative action in colleges. Another one of his projects, American Alliance for Equal Rights, sued Perkins Coie in 2023 over its fellowships reserved exclusively for students who identified as LGBTQ+, had a disability, or were people of color. The case was dismissed after Perkins Coie agreed to change the fellowship programs. In an email, Blum declined to answer if he's advised members of the Trump administration. But he praised the rationale behind Lucas's letters. "The race-based employment practices that many law firms have used during the last few years have been deeply polarizing and illegal," Blum wrote. "The new leadership at the EEOC, as well as other federal agencies, are to be commended for identifying these practices and, it is to be hoped, demanding they be eliminated." Paul Weiss effectively settled with Trump. In a Truth Social post on Thursday night announcing he would rescind his executive order targeting the firm, the president said Paul Weiss agreed it "will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies" and would spend $40 million in pro bono legal services supporting his administration's initiatives. Trump's post also included a statement saying Paul Weiss leader Brad Karp "acknowledged the wrongdoing" of former partner Mark Pomerantz, who had been a part of the prosecution team at the Manhattan district attorney's office investigating his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Perkins Coie took a different tack and sued to stop Trump's executive order targeting the firm. Earlier in March, a court granted Perkins Coie a temporary restraining order requiring federal agencies to disregard and rescind any guidance related to Trump's executive action. But the court order specifically didn't apply to two paragraphs where Trump ordered the EEOC and US Attorney General to investigate "large, influential, or industry leading law firms" for "compliance with race-based and sex-based non-discrimination laws." Diversity programs like affinity groups would only be unlawful if they aren't open to all employees who want to join, according to Asker Saeed, an attorney who advises law firms on DEI issues. Most law firms appear to be "staying the course" on their employee diversity programs while keeping a watchful eye on Trump, he said. "As it stands right now, the law is still the law," Saeed said. "What was legal before the Trump administration came in is still legal. And what was illegal before the Trump administration came in is still illegal." The rank-and-file of Jones Day predominantly supports Democrats. In the 2024 election, its employees donated five times as much money to Kamala Harris' presidential campaign compared to Trump's, according to Federal Elections Committee data compiled by Open Secrets. Trump has lashed out against lawyers who have turned against him, such as Michael Cohen, who worked at the Trump Organization for decades before becoming the key witness in his Manhattan criminal trial. Upon those who remain loyal, Trump heaps rewards. Pamela Bondi, who defended Trump in his first impeachment trial, is now Attorney General. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, his lawyers in the Manhattan criminal case, now serve in other top Justice Department posts. Alina Habba, Trump's go-to lawyer for personal cases, is now a White House advisor. Don McGahn, a prominent Jones Day lawyer, served as White House counsel during Trump's first term, leading the selection of federal court appointments. And the firm's attorneys have continued to find their way to powerful positions in the second Trump administration. Over at Jones Day, high salaries and proximity to power have helped make it an attractive employer — since 2011, it's hired nearly 100 former US Supreme Court clerks. Other elite Trump-friendly firms, like Sullivan & Cromwell, which agreed to appeal his Manhattan criminal conviction, and Troutman Pepper Locke, which represented Trump family members in the New York Attorney General's civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, are also missing from the EEOC list. Earlier this month, the president of the American Bar Association criticized "a clear and disconcerting pattern" where Trump targeted lawyers representing "parties the administration does not like" to intimidate critics. "Clients have the right to have access to their lawyer without interference by the government," William R. Bay said in a statement. "Lawyers must be free to represent clients and perform their ethical duty without fear of retribution." Read the original article on Business Insider
The Guardian
08-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
US equality chief fired by Trump condemns ‘demonization of the term DEI'
Seven days after Donald Trump was inaugurated, Jocelyn Samuels received a message from the White House saying that the president – who had first appointed her as a commissioner to the US government agency tasked with fighting workplace discrimination – now wanted her gone. Like so many other officials Trump has axed since retaking office, Samuels was informed she was being terminated from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) because of her 'support for radical Biden administration guidance, DEI initiatives and a refusal to defend women against extreme gender ideology'. The order appeared to fly in the face of the legal precedent governing her appointment to the commission, but Samuels also sees her firing as part of a greater strategy to create a Republican majority on the five-member commission that will roll back protections for transgender employees in particular, and retaliate more generally against businesses that attempt to address inequity in their workforce. 'What I observed from the outside is that there is a real desire to decimate the federal government's ability to provide the level of services that it has to the American people,' Samuels told the Guardian as she sat in a cafe earlier this week across the street from the White House, where her firing was orchestrated. 'With regard to the EEOC, I think that these terminations were in service of the administration's agenda to eliminate whatever they mean by DEI programs, and to erase the existence of trans people, because those are issues that fall directly under the EEOC jurisdiction, to the extent that they result in discrimination in the workplace.' A longtime civil rights lawyer who has been a senior official in the departments of justice and health and human services, Samuels was appointed to the commission during Trump's first term, and then reappointed by Joe Biden. On 27 January, she, along with fellow commissioner Charlotte Burrows and the EEOC's general counsel, both Democratic appointees, received an email from the White House presidential personnel office, saying they 'unsuitable to be members of this administration', Samuels recalled. The termination 'makes a mockery of the whole structure of these independent agencies,' she said. 'I do think that this was an unlawful action on his part, and it is a real disservice to workers across the country for me not to have been able to serve out my term.' A Trump administration official described Samuels and Burrows as 'far-left appointees with radical records of upending longstanding labor law, and they have no place as senior appointees in the Trump administration, which was given a mandate by the American people to undo the radical policies they created'. Samuels is one of many targeted in the firing spree Trump embarked on after returning to power last month, which the president has justified as necessary to root out supporters of policies he opposes, such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives supported by Biden. The president has ordered the axing of the leaders of the US Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and 18 independent federal agency watchdogs, allowed Elon Musk's 'department of government efficiency' to attempt to entice millions of federal employees into quitting their jobs and tried to pause all government loans and grants. Democrats say the campaign is an attempt to remove dissenters and ensure a compliant federal bureaucracy, while his spending freeze and mass buyouts have faced setbacks in court. The president has also gone after Democrats appointed to independent agency positions that are meant to be insulated from political interference. In addition to his dismissals from the EEOC, Trump fired three Democratic members of the Private Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a presidential advisory body, as well as a Democrat on the National Labor Relations Board, who this week filed a lawsuit alleging an 'unprecedented and illegal' dismissal by the president. He is also attempting to fire the chair of the Federal Election Commission, who has thus far refused to leave her post. Created by the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and tasked with enforcing protections against the discrimination of job applicants and employees, the five-member EEOC is intended to be bipartisan, with no more than three commissioners belonging to a sitting president's party. Among its tools is litigation against companies that it claims allow discrimination, including against transgender workers. Under Biden, the commission brought suits against a New York bar and restaurant where a transgender employee was told he 'wasn't a real man', and a Michigan restaurant chain that allowed a transgender employee to be misgendered by a co-worker, then fired him and his colleagues when they complained. Samuels's term was not to expire until July of next year, and she expected to have 'another 18 months on the commission, along with my fellow Democratic commissioners, to continue to advance our interpretations of the law'. Instead, she was sent an email full of conservative buzzwords as justification for her dismissal. But Samuels says Trump and his acolytes have never spelled out what they mean by DEI, and instead believe they are using their dislike of it as cover for a regulatory offensive intended to stop all efforts to address inequity. 'I think that this demonization of the term DEI is really misrepresenting the nature of the important work that needs to be done to really create a level playing field,' Samuels said. 'And my concern is that once there is a Republican majority on the EEOC, the commission will work to undermine employers' ability to do this important work.' With its commission in Republican hands, Samuels said the EEOC could roll back guidance that protects transgender workers from harassment, and rescind its interpretation of a federal law that female employees who seek abortions must be given accommodation by their employer. It may also actively take part in the Trump administration's fight against DEI, by pursuing claims of discrimination against employers who embrace policies that favor workforce diversity, flipping the traditional mission of pursuing claims against employers who eschew diversity and discriminate against employees from underrepresented demographics. The firing of Samuels and Burrows has left just a single Republican and Democratic commissioner each on the EEOC, robbing it of a quorum and limiting its functionality. Trump appointed the remaining Republican, Andrea Lucas, as acting chair, who, portending what Samuels fears, named as among her priorities 'rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination' and 'defending the biological and binary reality of sex'. 'There are plenty of race-neutral ways that employers can advance their commitment to diversity, but I think that a commission that thinks that even committing to that proactive work means that you are taking race into account in a way that will hurt white people, can do a lot of damage,' Samuels said. And contrary to the White House's accusation that she supports 'extreme gender ideology' and failed to 'defend women', Samuels argues there is no conflict between women's rights and transgender rights. 'Cisgender women are not harmed by combating failures to hire trans people or egregious misgendering or harassment of trans people,' Samuels said. 'An assault on the rights of one is an assault on the rights of all.' Samuels has considered suing over her dismissal, but is mindful of the greater legal peril that could bring. Such a case could wind up before the supreme court, where its conservative supermajority has recently shown a willingness to expand executive powers, including with last year's ruling granting presidents immunity for their official acts. If the justices uphold Samuels's dismissal, they could do so in a way that grants Trump and future presidents the explicit authority to fire members of independent bodies. Such a decision 'would be regrettable and a disservice to the functions served by these bipartisan agencies', Samuels said
