Blog related to Seattle Employment Law - Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and Hostile Work Environment.
About Attorney Nicole Gainey
- Gainey Law, PLLC (Nicole Gainey she/her)
- Seattle, WA, United States
- Seattle Attorney, Nicole Gainey, founder of Gainey Law PLLC, represents Washington State employees who have been sexually harassed, discriminated against and wrongfully terminated in legal disputes against their employers. To date, she was litigated against employers large and small seeking justice for her clients.
Monday, July 27, 2020
As Washington State employers start to re-open and talks of re-opening schools take center stage many employees have questions.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Anti-Racism Resources
Sometimes I meditate. It helps decrease stress and it helps me focus on the tedious task of applying facts to law - the basic work of lawyers. I usually do it alone using the Headspace app. Sometimes I use the Calm App. Sometimes I join group meditations. Top attorney and psychologist Lisa Blue was holding Monday morning sessions for awhile which was great. And locally I have attended in person and (more recently) remote Zoom sessions through SIMS. Tuere Sala is my favorite teacher. She is a former prosecutor - meditation helped her deal with the stressors of law school and litigation. She also teaches Qi Gong, and I was lucky enough to score an instruction and practice DVD from her before the pandemic hit. It has been one of the tools I use to stay sane during this time.
Recently, as a member of WSAJ's diversity committee, I was searching out anti-racism resources and discovered that SIMS has a wonderful list of resources. I share them below for your convenience. This is a time of great upheaval and change. I hope as a country we rise to the massive opportunity afforded us to make real and lasting change towards a more just and equitable society.
Antiracism Resources
Seattle Insight Meditation Society adds our voice to the outrage and heartbreak over the continued violence, prejudice and oppression directed at our Black and brown fellow citizens. While the outrage has a new expression, this is not a new problem. Our Black brothers and sisters live with racism daily, fearing for their lives, struggling against discrimination, and being treated as second-class citizens. The barriers to success and financial stability are very real.
The shock and anger at George Floyd’s death are waking up a country that too easily forgets the daily oppression, racism, and violence that is a fact of life for our Black sisters and brothers. The comfort and security the dominant white culture enjoys are entrenched and risk putting us back to sleep. The unconscious white supremacy and fragility must be overcome. We must not go back to sleep.
We must seek to understand and heal the racism in our own hearts. We must act with wisdom and compassion, confronting and uprooting all aspects of racism. As Dharma practitioners, we are dedicated to understanding suffering and the end of suffering. The root of suffering is the illusion of a separate, isolated sense of self. Racism is a profound manifestation of the separation between self and “other”. By creating a separate self, we create an “other” to defend against, to oppress, to control. Healing racism is Dharma work. It requires inner transformation and outer action.
Please join us in taking concrete, specific steps.
Sincerely,
Guiding Teachers and Board of Seattle Insight Meditation Society
Here are resources for both inner transformation and outer action. They offer a wide range to provide a starting point for your own work and engagement. Some information may be outdated. Find out more about Sims here.
Resources for Inner Transformation and Outer Action
There is a tremendous amount of resources to educate yourself in how to be an ally and not create harm in this time of transformation. Take the time to look through this long list and find areas that resonate with your heart.
ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATION (COMPILED BY BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES)
- Books, articles, and videos on social justice and race and Dharma
- Glossary of Helpful Terms
- Organizations and Actions to Engage in Anti-Racist Work
Local Resources
CONTACT PUBLIC OFFICIALS
Our public officials respond to public input. Everyone’s voice is important right now.
- council@seattle.gov. (206) 684-8888
- jenny.durkan@seattle.gov. (206) 684-4000
BLACK-OWNED BOOKSTORES YOU CAN SUPPORT RIGHT NOW
- Consider multiplying your impact by ordering from a Black-owned bookstore
- Here is a great resource with a purchase link to many of the books above directly from a Black-owned bookstore.
RESOURCES TO BE AN ALLY TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY BY ASUW DIRECTORY OF DIVERSITY EFFORT
- Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) provides an excellent list of 8 actions you can take against injustice towards the Black community, tools specifically to educate white people, and more.
- Ways to Help - an excellent list of current resources from protest gatherings to places to donate
RESOURCES BY THE STRANGER
- Black Lives Matter: A Guide to Resistance Events, Black-Owned Restaurants, and Other Ways to Stand Against Racism in Seattle
- List of Black-Owned Businesses by The Stranger
- List of Black-Owned Restaurants in the Greater Seattle area
Reading Lists
AN ANTIRACIST READING LIST BY IBRAM X. KENDI
GOODREADS/LISTOPIA
#BlackLivesMatter reading list
LETTERS FOR BLACK LIVES
Letters for Black Lives is a set of crowdsourced, multilingual, and culturally-aware resources to help talk about racial injustices with your own family/community. Translated into various languages
WHY IS THIS ALL HAPPENING?
This page on the 100 Year Hoodie website steps you through different layers of what has led up to this moment.
WHITE PRIVILEGE: UNPACKING THE INVISIBLE KNAPSACK BY PEGGY MCINTOSH
Podcasts
- Code Switch
- About Race with Renni Eddo-Lodge
- The Stoop
- The chicken and Jollof Rice show
- The Nod
- GirlsLikeMe
- Identity Politics
- Uncivil
- Seeing White series
- The Stacks – book discussion podcast with episodes on ‘How to be Antiracist’, ‘The Bluest Eye’, and more
- Brene Brown’s interview w/ Ibram X. Kendi
Films
- Slavery by Another Name (PBS Documentary)
- 13th Directed by Ava DuVernay (can be found on Netflix)
- When They See Us (can be found on Netflix)
- Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap – Netflix
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story – Netflix
- Just Mercy – free to stream in June (YouTube, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play)
- Malcolm X (Netflix)
- Hello, Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea (Netflix)
- Teach Us All (Netflix)
- Hidden Figures
- If Beale Street Could Talk (Amazon Prime)
- I Am Not Your Negro (Amazon Prime)
- Notes from the Field: Full Film (HBO, available on YouTube)
In this adaptation of the Off-Broadway show, playwright Anna Deavere Smith dramatizes the accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators affected by America’s school-to-prison pipeline, which pushes underprivileged, minority youth out of the classroom and into incarceration.
Series
- They Gotta Have Us (Netflix)
- Hip-Hop Evolution (Netflix)
Discussions
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Going back to work?
Friday, May 22, 2020
My Workplace is unsafe. Can I refuse to go to work?
If my workplace is unsafe, what can I do?
Washington Workers:
Contact the Department of Labor and Industry for information about Washington State Worker's rights or to file a complaint for unpaid wages or safety violations: LNI Complaints.
Washington Patients:
Concerned about a Medical Facility or Provider? File a complaint with the Department of Health.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
What does it mean to be an At-Will employee in Washington State?
“It is employment at will and its fundamental assumption which is the major barrier to establishing a system of collective bargaining,” wrote the labor lawyer Clyde W. Summers. “In American labor law, the monarchy still survives,”He summarized some alternative polices from around the globe,
In other countries, employees are viewed as members of the business enterprise. In Germany, for example, the employee-elected works council has, in addition to representation on the supervisory board, co-determination rights over decisions such as work schedules, leaves, safety and health measures and guidelines for hiring, transfer and dismissal. If the employer and the works council cannot agree on these matters, the issues are submitted to binding arbitration. In Sweden, the union must be consulted on "any matter relating to the relationship" between the employer and the employees. This includes such matters as a decision to introduce new machinery, sell the company or hire a new managing director. In Japan, the union is consulted on nearly all matters of employee interest and employees are commonly referred to as "members of the family.Jefferson B. Fordham Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania Law School; J.S.D. 1952, Columbia; J.D. 1942, Illinois; B.S. 1939, Illinois; expertise in labor law and comparative law. I. Payne v. Western & Ad. R.R., 81 Tenn. 507 (1884). 66 U. PA. JOURNAL OF LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW [Vol. 3:1 ]
It is my hope that as we emerge from this pandemic induced hibernation that we will consider not just economy protecting adjustments that happen to benefits all citizens - like detaching medical insurance coverage from full-time employment, but also that we will seek and secure policies that correct for the imbalances of power and thereby restore a rightful sense of dignity to all workers.
To read more about the history of the At-Will employment doctrine click here.
Friday, May 15, 2020
I'm afraid to go back to work because I fear exposure to Covid-19? Can I lose my job if I refuse?
Employees should understand that if they have a disability they should ask for accomadation, however the legal ADA PRECEDENT states that an EMPLOYEE IS NOT ENTITLED TO THE ACCOMMODATION OF HIS/HER CHOICE; ONLY TO A REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
Examples of reasonable accommodations may look like:
Additional or enhanced protective gowns, masks, gloves, or other gear beyond what the employer may generally provide to employees returning to its workplace.
Additional or enhanced protective measures, for example, erecting a barrier that provides separation between an employee with a disability and coworkers/the public or increasing the space between an employee with a disability and others.
Elimination or substitution of particular “marginal” functions (whether on an alternative or temporary basis).
For example, a worker doesn't want to go to work and risk accommodation b/c my souse is a cancer survivor and infection could kill them. Normally the employer would have no requirement to accommodate that employee. However, employers should be careful there is case law supporting disability by association. Same as if a employee's souse is a nurse or doctor and other workers are afraid of exposure through that employer. to be continued....
Thursday, May 14, 2020
If I've had, or been exposed to, Coronavirus / Covid-19 am I immune? If I am immune, for how long do I have immunity?
Speakers were: Geoffrey Baird, MD, PhD: Pathologist and Interim Chair of Laboratory Medicine, UW Medicine; Director of the Clinical and Toxicology Chemistry Laboratory, Harborview Medical Center Nancy Davidson, MD: President & Executive Director, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; Senior Vice President, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Head, Medical Oncology, University of Washington George Haddad, MD: Co-founder, COVID Response Partners Jeff Tomlin, MD: CEO, Evergreen Health.
What I wanted to know was when antibody testing will be widely available in the Seattle area and if being exposed to, or acquiring the virus and surviving, will create immunity to future exposures.
Unfortunately, the answers were that testing is coming but supply chain issues remain a problem (not enough swabs). So it is slow. Also, we wont know about the immunity question until after testing is wide-spread.
Interesting information: One patient has been asymptomatic (no symptoms) but has now tested positive for the virus for 72 days. Those numbers are scary because this patient had no reason to know they were infected felt fine (related to those symptoms but was hospitalized on unrelated issues) they otherwise could have be walking around infecting others without knowing it. This is why masks are important even if you feel fine.
Dr. George Haddad said, testing will bring on a new level of chaos. The testing is just one step and we need to figure out the best test (no false negatives or positives). Talked about testing workers everyday. (not practical with the very uncomfortable nasal swap test.)
Are Doctors offices and hospitals extra dangerous right now? Dr. Nancy Davidson says ironically these places are safer than normal b/c of the screening in place and the heightened vigilance. Suggests getting your routine health care and go to the ER if you need emergency help. Dr. Baird says doctors and researchers know how to use PPEs and to not cross contaminate.
Should you avoid going to the hospital or Doctors office to conserve resources? There is capacity at local Washington hospitals and ER departments to take care of you. With the cancellation of elective procedures there is no overwhelm of the medical systems in Wa right now - if you need help get it.
Back to work - Best Practices - Business must act like a hospital
Psychology of the Pandemic - get over it with knowledge and education
New normal - never go to work with the sniffles.
Screening for fevers
Hand washing
Disinfecting
Not touching your face
Productivity - EEs must feel safe to go back to work
A lot of people will need or want to go back to face to face work other organizations are realizing that they can do more than they thought remotely.
Financial health of the medical system - necessarily devastated had to do it to save lives but we need to open things back up and start making up for the millions in losses. But the system needs to be overhauled so it is not so vulnerable to things like this.
-
Gainey Law, PLLC currently represents client(s) related to the wrongful acts of Dr. Douglas Robinson and the Washington State entities that ...
-
Ugh what can I say, I'm a nineties bitch.
-
October 2023 Book Review: Update on Dodd's Deposition Guide Read the Review Here June 2022 Book Review: Damages Evolving : A collaborat...
Recently Posted Gainey Employment Attorney
Workplace Bullying Project
I just had the pleasure of meeting with the Workplace Bullying Project's founder Lauri Lilli. What a breathe of fresh air for ...