Massachusetts employers can not refuse to accommodate handicapped employees who are lawfully prescribed medical marijuana to treat or alleviate a medical condition. Stated differently, continued use of medical marijuana as a reasonable accommodation request is not facially unreasonable. In Barbuto v. Advantage Sales, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) reversed…
Overview: In Morrison v. Wilder Brothers Tire Co., the MCAD found in favor of the Respondent auto repair business and dismissed the complaint filed by its former operations manager. The Complainant, who suffered from ADHD, mild autism, and depression, alleged that he was terminated one day after providing a letter…
Overview: In Codinha v. Bear Hill Nursing Center, the MCAD found in favor of the Complainant and awarded emotional distress damages for unlawful termination based on age and disability. The Complainant, a Certified Nursing Assistant, was in her early 70s when she fell at home and broke her wrist. After…
Overview: In Lapete v. Country Bank, the MCAD found in favor of the Complainant and awarded back pay and emotional distress damages. The hearing officer determined that the Respondent bank failed to provide a reasonable accommodation for the Complainant’s disability—post-partum depression following the birth of her son via emergency C-section—and…
Non-competition agreements in Massachusetts have been the center of debate for several years. As bills to ban non-competes before the House of Representatives and Senate continue to swirl, many employees in Massachusetts are forced to agree to restrictive covenants on a take-it-or-leave-it basis as a condition of employment. While Massachusetts…
Proving employment discrimination without direct evidence – regardless of whether its based on age, handicap, or some other protected category – ultimately boils down to whether the employee can show that the employer’s stated reason for the adverse employment action (e.g., termination, demotion, failure to promote) is a pretext for…
Aside from cases involving direct or “smoking gun” evidence, which is rare, proving an employment discrimination claim is often nuanced and accomplished through the use of circumstantial evidence. As the Supreme Court in Rogers v. Missouri Pacific has long recognized, such evidence can even be the most powerful of the…
Employment discrimination claims often hinge on the admissibility of evidence. A plaintiff bringing an employment discrimination claim may, for example, offer into evidence testimony from other employees who also believe they were victims of discrimination. Such evidence is referred to as “me too” or propensity evidence and has been a…