Posts by Hitchcock & Potts

On August 30, 2021, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined his state to a lawsuit filed against President Joe Biden and his administration, arguing that the federal government does not have the right to extend federal discrimination protections to members of the LGBTQ+ communities. The original suit was filed by Tennessee’s AG, arguing that…

The United States has countless laws, at both the state and federal level, to guard against discriminatory treatment in the workplace. However, there are certain instances where behavior that would otherwise be considered discriminatory will pass legal muster because of the way U.S. discrimination laws are worded. It is important to be aware of these…

South Carolina and U.S. federal law both prohibit discrimination in employment if it is done on the basis of certain protected characteristics. Between Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the South Carolina Human Affairs Law (HAL), and many other pieces of legislation, employers are forbidden to discriminate on bases of race, sex/gender,…

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that allows qualifying employees to take up to 12 weeks’ worth of “unpaid, job-protected” leave per calendar year. Leave is generally granted if the employee establishes that certain conditions exist for either them or a close family member of theirs. However, sometimes an employer will…

Sexual harassment in the workplace is, unfortunately, an evergreen problem. However, it can sometimes be difficult to determine if the behavior you have experienced actually rises to the level of harassment. While sexual harassment does not have a specific definition, per se, it does have to have certain characteristics be present or it is not…

Vaccines have been a major bulwark against the spread of COVID-19, with infection rates lowered among the vaccinated population. Because of this, more and more employers are imposing vaccine requirements on their employees before they will be permitted to return to work, citing workplace safety. There has been legal pushback on this issue, claiming a…

A phrase that employers and employees both will commonly hear when discussing employment law is “reasonable accommodations.” More than one state and federal antidiscrimination law – among them, the South Carolina Human Affairs Law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), state that an employer must…

In June 2021, Prentice Williams, the former fire chief of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, retired due to an alleged hostile work environment. News outlets only broke the story in mid-July, but as of this writing, no steps appear to have been taken to address the perceived faults in Surfside Beach’s workplace culture. Williams stated that…

In late June 2021, the U.S. Federal District Court in South Carolina handed down a decision granting summary judgment in a case brought against Publix Super Markets, Inc. by a former employee. The employee was terminated in January 2018, ostensibly for disobeying corporate policy to refrain from physical interaction with alleged shoplifters, but plaintiff argued…

Religion is one of the protected classes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with race/color, sex/gender, and national origin. This means that with very rare exceptions, discrimination against a person based on religion, real or perceived, is unlawful. An employer who is found to have engaged in discrimination on religious…