Work This Way: A Labor & Employment Law Podcast | Episode 12: Understanding Unions with Patrick Wilson, Maynard Nexsen Attorney (Part 2)
Politics in the workplace: A volatile combination!
They Said What? First Amendment Issues in 2020
Political and Controversial Activity in the Workplace [More with McGlinchey Ep. 11]
Politics at Work
I-17 – Engaging Your Employees in Today’s Workplace, Featuring Rick Turner at Whirlpool Corporation
I-16 – Kneeling, Indefinite Leave, DC Updates, Non-Compete Consideration, and Pretty as a Protected Class
With the election quickly approaching, we are already receiving questions from employers involving concerns over arguments and disruptions in the workplace resulting from political disagreements. We hoped that the contentious...more
Protest and political activism are deeply ingrained in American culture, boasting a storied history of citizens mobilizing to advocate for change and to challenge injustices. From the Boston Tea Party during the colonial era...more
Louis Brandeis famously wrote in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927), that the remedy for false or harmful speech “is more speech, not enforced silence.” A recent Fifth Circuit case presented a novel question that...more
Social media has created a minefield of concerns for both employees and employers. The news is full of stories of employees documenting their questionable off-duty conduct on social media, or posting comments containing...more
Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the three cases: Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, No. 16-1435: Is Minnesota Statute Section 211B.11, which broadly bans all political apparel at the polling place,...more
There is a widespread myth in this country that the First Amendment protects free speech in the workplace. Employees who loudly state controversial opinions often think the First Amendment protects them from being fired as a...more
Dear Littler: I work for a prominent company in a small city here in the Hoosier State, and we are very involved in our local community. We sponsor a corporate softball team, and last night one of our team members “took a...more
Two recent major news stories again involve the intersection of politics with employment law. In the first matter, Google fired a programmer after he posted an internal document criticizing the company’s diversity...more
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and in this political climate, it seems as though more people are comfortable voicing those opinions, even if they may offend someone. Although free speech is a primary pillar of...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled on a matter involving “perceived affiliation”, bringing clarity to the matter, where the circuits provided discordant rulings. As a result, personnel actions based upon even mistaken...more
Everyone has experienced both "workplace politics," in which Type A employees claw their way to the top at the expense of co-workers, and "politics in the workplace," in which employees discuss candidates for office and...more
During every political campaign, I am reminded of the notion that if we speak about our co-workers or subordinates in the manner in which the American voter speaks about political candidates, we should expect some remediation...more
Is it still retaliation if your boss fired you for something you didn’t actually do? In Heffernan v. City of Paterson, New Jersey, the U.S. Supreme Court said yes—your boss’s mistake does not get him off the hook for the...more
U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Case Involving Political Campaigning Accusations - A government agency violated the constitutional rights of an employee who was demoted based on the mistaken belief that he violated the...more
For government employers, disciplining and terminating employees can be especially difficult. Not only does the public employer face the same challenges in complying with the standard alphabet soup of employment laws that...more
The Sixth Circuit recently held that Michigan state employees could base First Amendment political-affiliation and protected-speech retaliation claims on their perceived political affiliations, even absent actual affiliations...more