My colleague Richard Cohen wrote a couple of thoughtful pieces last week on the increase in discrimination claims by Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians.
Here he talks about how religious discrimination claims by Muslims are disproportionately high when compared to their representation in the workforce. He also discusses a $400,000 settlement after the general manager at a Bay Area car dealer called his Afghan American salesmen "terrorists."
In this post, he talks about employers being subject to complaints of religious discrimination for denying seemingly innocuous requests by employees to wear head scarves.
While this is undoubtedly a trend to watch, now is the time to make sure that your managers understand that discrimination against Muslims or Arabs (or people mistakenly perceived as Muslims or Arabs) is just as unacceptable as any other type of discrimination.
And speaking of nationalities and national origin, my somewhat glib post about differences between U.S. and Canada employment laws has inspired this response from Earl Phillips of McCarthy Tetrault in his British Columbia Employer Advisor. A rebuttal is definitely in order and I intend to turn to that soon.