Prohibits no-rehire provisions in agreements to settle harassment or discrimination claims. The prohibition reaches provisions that prevent an employee who filed a claim against the employer from working again for the employer or any parent company, subsidiary, division, or affiliate of the employer. Vermont’s law previously only prohibited no-rehire provisions in sexual harassment settlements. The law also amends its workplace discrimination law to define harassment as unwelcome conduct that interferes with an employee’s work or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. Vermont’s law now explicitly states that harassment or discrimination need not be severe or pervasive to be found unlawful. However, behavior that would be considered to be a petty slight or trivial inconvenience by a reasonable employee with the same protected characteristic would not be considered harassment. Courts must look at the totality of the circumstances to determine whether harassment occurred, and a single incident may constitute harassment. Incidents that may be harassment will be considered in the aggregate, and varying types of conduct and conduct based on multiple characteristics (e.g., harassing conduct based on race and harassing conduct based on sex) will be viewed in totality rather than in isolation. The new law also provides additional guidance for courts to avoid common analytical pitfalls, including, for example, making clear that conduct may be considered harassment regardless of whether the complaining employee submitted to or participated in the conduct.
Full Bill or Law Text:
VT S. 103