Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, is a term used to describe policies and programs that promote the representation and participation of different groups of individuals. This includes people of different ages, races and ethnicities, abilities and disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations.
The awareness of the necessity to not only hire more diverse candidates but to include, train and promote these individuals has come front and center and is more important now than ever. However, when businesses make a good-faith effort to hire diverse employees, they may unwittingly be opening themselves up to lawsuits. And on the other hand, businesses that don’t try to diversify their workforce could face lawsuits as well. It’s quite a dilemma.
Lowenstein Sandler LLP’s Julie Levinson Werner, a noted employment law attorney, says adopting quotas of a fixed percentage of individuals in certain roles by a certain date based on race, gender or other characteristics is legally risky. In fact, this very issue is at the heart of the upcoming Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. While this case deals with the legality of race-based admissions in the scholastic context, one can foresee the result extending to the broader workplace...
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has rejected claims that he has withdrawn or rescinded the gazetted renaming of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town, along with other geo...