sex discrimination

By a unanimous 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that anti-discrimination laws forbid employers from firing the fiancee of an employee as retaliation for her complaining about sexual discrimination. Just as interesting as the ruling is why the pro-business wing of the court came down on the side of the employees.

Female employees of Citigroup are paid less, get fewer promotions, but fired first, according to a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by six women against the bank yesterday. The bank responded, saying that the women's allegations are "inacurrate" or "incomplete."

A suit filed by three women accusing Goldman Sachs of sex discrimination underscores a surprising trend: Despite growing equality in the business world, financial services has become an increasingly male-dominated industry.

A gender discrimination lawsuit has been filed against Goldman Sachs Group, alleging pay and promotion bias against women at the Wall Street investment bank.

Labor Day isn't just about rounding out the summer season with a nice three-day weekend, of course. It's a "national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country", notes the Labor Department, and has been a national holiday for over 100 years. In that vein, here's a roundup of recent labor-oriented legal news:

Pharmaceutical giant Novartis lost a huge gender discrimination case in May, and faced $250 million in punitive damages, plus possibly hundreds of millions more in compensatory damages. Rather than deal with years of appeals, both sides settled Wednesday for $152 million.

DailyFinance's legal correspondent Abigail Field has avoided weighing in on the Debrahlee Lorenzana case -- until now. But its time to look at the facts: Whether the Citigroup banker was "too sexy" isn't the point. The question is, did Citigroup create a hostile, discriminatory workplace?

Novartis Pharmaceuticals was found guilty of sex discrimination and slapped with $250 million in punitive damages. The jury may have felt the drugmaker's closing argument, which was laced with sexist stereotypes, illustrated the plaintiff's point.

Novartis Pharmaceuticals was found guilty of sex discrimination and slapped with hefty fines. The jury's verdict sends a strong message to Wal-Mart which is facing its own sex discrimination case.

In the largest sex discrimination case ever to go to a jury, it took jurors only a week to find Novartis Pharmaceuticals guilty of discriminating against 5,600 female sales representatives. Compensatory and punitive damages could run to the hundreds of millions of dollars.