A recent lawsuit brought on behalf of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community should prompt employers to consider taking measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as providing transparent face masks for employees and clean writing tools for customers, in order to comply with federal and state disability discrimination laws.
Groundbreaking Lawsuit Against Nike Prompts Employers to Consider Transparent Face Masks as an ADA Accommodation During the Pandemic
April 22, 2021 via Total Food Service
A recent lawsuit brought on behalf of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community should prompt employers to consider taking measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as providing transparent face masks for employees and clean writing tools for customers, in order to comply with federal and state disability discrimination laws.
Nike, like most employers in 2020, began requiring its retail employees to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The company provided solid-colored, Nike-branded masks to all employees. Thereafter a customer, who is deaf, entered one of Nike’s San Diego-area stores to purchase some shoes. Like other deaf and hearing-impaired customers, that customer relies on her ability to read other’s lips to communicate. Masks like the ones Nike-provided create unique communication problems for deaf and hard of hearing people, because they muffle speech and block visualization of the mouth area and facial expressions.
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McDonald's Will Require Anti-Harassment Training at all Restaurants in 2022
April 14, 2021 via Restaurant Dive
In the past, McDonald's only required sexual harassment trainings of corporate-owned locations — just a sliver of its store footprint — though it encouraged operators to do the same and made training materials available on its website. The company also in 2019 created a four-page policy against "discrimination, harassment and retaliation" that provides guidance on next steps if a policy were violated and created a sexual harassment hotline.
Despite these efforts, critics have long called for putting McDonald's franchisees on the hook for these trainings alongside
company-owned restaurants. Juliette Gust, co-founder of workplace misconduct reporting channel Ethics Suite, told Restaurant Dive last summer that restaurants aren't motivated to make these kinds of demands of their franchisees because corporations have been absolved of joint employer liability in these kinds of situations in the past.
