Age Discrimination, Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

EEOC has updated its poster that employers must display

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The Unit­ed States Equal Employ­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion (“EEOC”) has updat­ed its poster that employ­ers are required to dis­play in their work­places. Here is the EEOC’s web site on its poster. Here is an inter­net (HTML) copy of the poster. Here is the PDF of the print­able poster for wall dis­play. The name of the poster is “Know Your Rights: Work­place Dis­crim­i­na­tion is Illegal”.

The poster does a good job of edu­cat­ing employ­ees and employ­ers on essen­tial aspects of the fed­er­al anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion laws. It cov­ers what employ­ees are pro­tect­ed, what employ­ers are cov­ered, the pro­tect­ed char­ac­ter­is­tics about which the laws pro­hib­it dis­crim­i­na­tion, the deci­sions and con­duct of the employ­ers that are pro­hib­it­ed, and how an employ­ee can file a charge with the EEOC. In light of new­er tech­nol­o­gy, the poster has a QR code so an employ­ee can user a phone to jump straight to the EEOC’s web site for fil­ing a charge.

Per­haps the most impor­tant updat­ing is that, after the deci­sion in Bostock v. Clay­ton Coun­ty, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), dis­crim­i­na­tion based on sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion and gen­der iden­ti­ty is pro­hib­it­ed gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion. Here is the list from the poster of the pro­tect­ed char­ac­ter­is­tics under the fed­er­al anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion laws:

  1. Race
  2. Col­or
  3. Reli­gion
  4. Nation­al origin
  5. Sex (includ­ing preg­nan­cy and relat­ed con­di­tions, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, or gen­der identity)
  6. Age (40 and older)
  7. Dis­abil­i­ty
  8. Genet­ic infor­ma­tion (includ­ing employ­er requests for, or pur­chase, use, or dis­clo­sure of genet­ic tests, genet­ic ser­vices, or fam­i­ly med­ical history)

Here is the list of pro­tect­ed actions, for which retal­i­a­tion is prohibited:

  1. Fil­ing a charge, 
  2. Rea­son­ably oppos­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion, or 
  3. Par­tic­i­pat­ing in a dis­crim­i­na­tion law­suit, inves­ti­ga­tion, or proceeding.

Also help­ful is the broad list of employ­ment prac­tices that may be “chal­lenged as discriminatory”:

  • Dis­charge, fir­ing, or lay-off
  • Harass­ment (includ­ing unwel­come ver­bal or phys­i­cal conduct)
  • Hir­ing or promotion
  • Assign­ment
  • Pay (unequal wages or compensation)
  • Fail­ure to pro­vide rea­son­able accom­mo­da­tion for a dis­abil­i­ty or a sin­cere­ly-held reli­gious belief, obser­vance or practice
  • Ben­e­fits
  • Job train­ing
  • Clas­si­fi­ca­tion
  • Refer­ral
  • Obtain­ing or dis­clos­ing genet­ic infor­ma­tion of employees
  • Request­ing or dis­clos­ing med­ical infor­ma­tion of employees
  • Con­duct that might rea­son­ably dis­cour­age some­one from oppos­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion, fil­ing a charge, or par­tic­i­pat­ing in an inves­ti­ga­tion or proceeding.

Under lim­it­ed cir­cum­stances, an employ­er can get by with post­ing a copy online. But under most cir­cum­stances a phys­i­cal copy of the poster must be placed on a wall in a con­spic­u­ous spot where employ­ees will see it.

Drew M. Capuder
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