Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) grants employees the right to unionize, engage in activities to advance their common interests, and abstain from these activities. From time to time, employers establish...more
Title VII requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would cause an "undue hardship." SCOTUS delimited the boundaries of "undue hardship" in this context some...more
6/30/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
De Minimis Claims ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Substantial Burden ,
Title VII ,
Undue Hardship
Good news from the EEOC for a change! The EEOC announced that it is delaying the deadline to submit EEO-1 data until May 31, 2019. The agency blames “a partial lapse in appropriations” for its need to extend the deadline,...more
Back in 2012, the EEOC issued BNSF a “Commissioner’s Charge,” saying it would investigate purported ADA violations by the railroad. For several years, BNSF cooperated with the EEOC’s numerous information requests. During...more
In a classic “man bites dog” story, the Florida Senate filed a federal lawsuit against the EEOC. The suit seeks to kill an EEOC charge and administrative hearing alleging that a senator sexually harassed a legislative...more
On April 2, 2015, the EEOC issued a self-congratulatory press release in which it bragged mightily about a $100,000 judgment it just obtained in a discrimination lawsuit. The press release identified the defendant in the...more
The Seventh Circuit recently condoned an EEOC practice that dramatically inhibits the private settlement of employment discrimination lawsuits.
Two Union Pacific employees filed an EEOC charge. The EEOC provided a Notice...more
9/14/2017
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Harassment ,
Retaliation ,
Right to Sue Letter ,
Title VII
An agreement between the UFCW and the Fred Meyer grocery store chain restricted the union’s ability to visit with store employees in public view. But things went south when the UFCW declared war on Fred Meyer. Some eight...more
Wednesday the DOL announced that it was withdrawing two critical pieces of “guidance” issued under the Obama administration. The first piece addressed the DOL’s rather narrow view of who is an independent contractor (S&H...more
6/12/2017
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Misclassification ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Wage and Hour
Regardless of your political views, most will agree that President Trump’s firing of F.B.I. Director James Comey was fraught with potential controversy. Employers can find at least four takeaways from what was, in short, a...more
You may recall from the Crocodile Dundee movies that Dundee was a big fan of walkabouts in the Australian outback…and Manhattan. A while back OSHA began encouraging walkabouts of a sort....more
We have heard an extraordinary amount of commentary about the impending December 1, 2016 deadline for compliance with the new FLSA overtime regulations. One of the most troubling comments that appears to be gaining...more
We have repeatedly blogged on the Pushmi-Pullyu world of independent contractor relationships, a world in which employers can do no right. (DOL Says Employers Are Morons) Well, Arizona recently enacted a law providing at...more
The “biggest idiot theory” (our term, not the NLRB’s) states that, when the NLRB reviews an employer’s policy to see whether the policy would “chill” an employee from exercising NLRA rights, the NLRB does so from the...more
Title VII requires the EEOC to engage in “conciliation” once it issues a cause determination. The EEOC’s unique approach to conciliation, which typically is totally divorced from anything conciliatory, is the subject of this...more
The EEOC has broadcast proposed regulations on wellness programs. In short, the proposed regs attempt to reconcile Obamacare provisions encouraging wellness programs, the ADA’s approval of medical examinations that are truly...more
An employer’s bid to quash three ridiculously overbroad NLRB subpoenas fell short even though the trial court repeatedly said it disapproved of the NLRB’s tactics. The SEIU filed unfair labor practice charges against a...more
Over the last few weeks we have blogged on a number of judicial decisions chastising the EEOC (Another Approaching Benchslap for EEOC?, EEOC Benchslaps Just Keep Coming and The EEOC Hits Just Keep Coming!). Today we shift our...more
Yesterday we reported on an entertaining “man bites dog” case initiated by a former EEOC Phoenix Regional Office investigator who sued the EEOC for race discrimination, retaliation, and violation of her civil rights. “Another...more
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important decision affecting public employers and employee First Amendment rights to free speech. Lane v. Franks et al., No. 13-483 (U.S. June 19, 2014) Central Alabama Community...more
The NLRB recently struck down an employer’s “anti-gossip” policy, ruling that the policy unlawfully interfered with employees’ rights to engage in concerted protected activity under the NLRA. Laurus Technical Inst., 360 NLRB...more
The Ninth Circuit just held that an employer is entitled to deduct from an employee’s final paycheck money an employee owes to the employer. Ward v. Costco Wholesale Corp. Costco issued Ms. Ward a company credit card, but...more
A federal court of appeals recently broke ranks with other federal appellate courts, holding that the EEOC’s failure to obey its statutory duty to conciliate before filing a lawsuit does not serve as a defense to the lawsuit....more