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The EEOC filed a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against Blackwater Protection & Detective Agency, LLC.  The complaint described how the owner, Asdel Vazquez, continuously targeted a female employee with brazen sexual comments and suggestions that the two engage in sexual acts. Vazquez also pet the employee’s hair while she worked and called her after work hours when she was at home. After the female employee rejected Vazquez’s sexual advances and told Mr. Vazquez that she wanted to “keep things professional”, she was fired. 

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

Thompson Legal Center attorney, KC Hopkinson, was recently interviewed about the discrimination and severe harassment her clients are enduring while working for Cognizant in Tampa, Florida.  A journalist for The Verge, Casey Newton, wrote an article “The Trauma Floor” where he describes the deplorable work conditions at Cognizant’s Phoenix, Arizona location. Newton decided to visit Cognizant’s Tampa office and was granted interviews by current and former Cognizant employees despite a nondisclosure agreement that all employees are required to sign. In his most recent article, “Bodies in Seats”, Newton explains the

James M. Thompson was interviewed by ABC Action News for a news story regarding new Federal overtime rules for salary employees.

If you feel you are owed overtime wages please contact Thompson Legal Center at 813-769-3900.

Racial discrimination is still present in today’s workforce.  However, many companies and their employees feel that diversity in the workplace should play a role in their hiring and promotion decisions. A January 2019 poll conducted by Pew Research states that 75% of all respondents felt it was important for companies to “promote racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace”. Within that number, different identity groups based on race and political stance fell to different sides when asked about how that promotion of diversity should factor into the hiring process. For

Jenkins v. S. David Anton, PA; 8:15-cv-00283

James Moten Thompson and Kathryn Hopkinson successfully defended their client in an appeal case where the Plaintiff claimed that the Court abused its discretion and misapplied the legal standard against her in a wage and hour dispute. In the non-jury trial that preceded the appeal, she’d alleged that her Employer had not paid her owed overtime compensation, to which she claimed she was entitled under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

The Court found that the Plaintiff could not present additional testimonial evidence after she

Happy National Equal Pay Day!

Demand Equal Pay for Equal Work!

Are you being paid what you deserve? Discrimination based on your sex is an everyday occurrence, in and out of the workplace. While many employers advise their employees that it is illegal to discuss their pay with co-workers, this notion is false. Across the Country, women continue to be paid a fraction of what their male counterparts are paid. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 amended the existing Fair Labor Standards Act in an attempt to abolish wage disparity based on

Experiencing Race Discrimination in the Workplace?

Thompson Legal Center Can Help!

I read an interesting article (see below) on the “right way” for leaders to respond to discrimination, racism and racist comments in the office.  These tips could be helpful for not only those in a leadership position but for anyone who is a witness to a racist comment or action. Unfortunately, race discrimination is still ever-present in today’s workplace.  There are Federal and State laws designed to help protect employees from race discrimination in the workplace. Title VII of The Federal

Pregnant worker was denied light duty as an accommodation was able to pursue a Pregnancy Discrimination Act claim.

Often employers will discharge a pregnant employee based on her inability to do strenuous manual work such as heavy lifting even when other work is available.  In some circumstances, such a decision can form the basis of a pregnancy discrimination claim under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

A recent federal pregnancy discrimination case out of Illinois (Babak v. Bright Star Ambulance, Inc., (ND Illinois, 16-cv-10397) Feb. 2019), the court allowed a pregnancy EMT worker to

The EEOC’s latest press release (see below) is regarding pregnancy discrimination. Throughout the American workplace, pregnancy discrimination remains widespread. The number of pregnancy discrimination claims filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been steadily rising for two decades and is hovering near an all-time high.  If you feel that you have been discriminated against by your employer due to your pregnancy, please call Thompson Legal Center at 813-769-3900.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      September 24, 2018

THE GLENRIDGE ON PALMER RANCH SUED BY EEOC FOR PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION

Retirement Community Failed to Hire Woman

Program Intentionally Discriminated Against Blacks in Its Hiring Process, Federal Agency Charges

     MIAMI – Jacksonville Plumbers and Pipefitters Joint Apprenticeship and Training Trust (JPP), which sponsors an apprenticeship program that seeks to produce journeypersons to work in the plumbing and pipefitting industries in Northeast Florida, engaged in a pattern or practice of race discrimination by failing to hire black apprentices, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today. Additionally, JPP’s use of arbitrarily scored interview criteria to hire apprentices has a disparate