Since the enactment of the federal Controlled Substances Act in 1970, marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I drug, a category reserved for drugs deemed to have no currently accepted medical use, a high potential for...more
3/12/2026
/ Controlled Substances Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Marijuana ,
New Regulations ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trump Administration
If I didn’t know better, I would assume this message was part of a plaintiff attorney’s marketing campaign. Instead, these words come from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas in a video posted in...more
For years, marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substance Act. Heroin, LSD, peyote, and quaaludes are other drugs that fall under the Schedule I classification. In December,...more
With more companies requiring remote employees to return to work at their physical office locations, the status of remote work is evolving, with more and more employers facing challenges to their decisions regarding their...more
For purposes of many employment laws, two companies can be considered a single (or joint) employer under some circumstances. In an opinion letter dated September 30, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division...more
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act has always prohibited religious discrimination in the workplace and has required employers to consider employees’ requests for religious accommodations at work. Examples of accommodation...more
We’re witnessing more emphasis on immigration enforcement. Increasingly, that emphasis is being felt by employers, with a noticeable uptick in federal agency inquiries directed at workplaces. With more of a focus on...more
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an employer should grant accommodations to an employee with a disability, so long as the accommodation is reasonable and does not impose an undue hardship upon the employer’s...more
A federal court’s ruling last week striking down the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines on gender identity and sexual orientation harassment in the workplace got the attention of employers around the...more
Surging changes to workplace laws understandably have employers suffering from whiplash. Historically, employment laws have shifted when presidential administrations have changed. A May 1 announcement by the U.S. Department...more
Surging changes to workplace laws understandably have employers suffering from whiplash. Historically, employment laws have shifted when presidential administrations have changed. A May 1, 2025, announcement by the U.S....more
Generally, employers are not responsible for events involving their employees that happen after hours and away from work. But that is not always the case. In its April 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,...more
While an increasing number of employers have issued mandates or announced their intentions in recent months to require their remote employees to return to the office, it’s safe to assume that some employees may continue to...more
With the recent filing of federal criminal charges against an employer, immigration enforcement actions have escalated to a new level. Leonardo Baez and Alicia Avila-Guel have owned and operated Abby’s Bakery and Dulce’s...more
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows eligible employees working for covered employers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, protected leave during a 12-month period for absences resulting from covered family or medical...more
Employers are not required to pay non-exempt employees for the time they spend commuting between their home and work to begin their workday or after ending their workday. However, travel time during the workday is often...more
The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) prohibits employment discrimination and retaliation based on an employee’s military status or obligations. If an individual’s military status or their...more
Administering and policing Family and Medical Leave Act requests means reviewing medical reports submitted by employees in support of their absences. When something looks fishy about an FMLA medical certification, the...more
Employers are understandably reluctant to allow employees with medical restrictions to resume working. A concern that returning the employee to work risks worsening their condition causes some employers to require a “complete...more
There is no federal workplace violence prevention standard, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations do not expressly address workplace violence. Yet, when a convenience store employee was shot during a...more
In earlier articles titled “FTC announces nationwide ban on noncompetes in the workplace” and “FTC’s ban on noncompete agreements halted … sort of”, we reported on the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to invalidate...more
In a July 8 article titled “FTC’s ban on noncompete agreements halted … sort of,” we reported that a Texas federal court had stayed the enforceability of the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule implementing a nationwide ban...more
Earlier this spring, in an article titled “FTC announces nationwide ban on noncompetes in the workplace,” we alerted employers to the Federal Trade Commission’s approval of a final rule implementing a nationwide ban on...more
7/9/2024
/ Appeals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Texas
Some employers may designate employees for on-call status, requiring them to be available to respond to after-hours service needs or emergencies. A recent Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which applies to employers in...more
A large convenience store chain recently learned about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s intention to challenge how employers use arrest and conviction records to make hiring decisions....more