Sex in the Mattress Business: An ADA Title 1 Disability?

Charges of discrimination in employment have driven a high number of EEOC actions this year. Join me on March 28th to look at one such charge which was triggered by the gender of individuals applying employment. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, since at least January 1, 2013, the company in question has engaged in a nationwide pattern or practice of discrimination against women, intentionally excluding qualified female applicants from sales and warehouse jobs because of their sex. Allegedly, corporate managers instructed store managers not to hire women because women “complain and make trouble.” Store employees also heard store managers say that women: “bitch too much;” are too much of “a distraction” to the male employees; cannot work in the warehouse because “women can’t lift,” and do not “do as great a job at selling furniture as men,” according to the suit.

In addition to this soon-to-be classic case, I will review at least three other actions involving errors in post-offer employment testing, hiring, and the reasonable accommodation process. The wide range of actions so far this year makes this type of review easy to do!