Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis that has resulted in profound changes to when employees can claim discrimination relating to job decisions that do not appear to have much...more
6/20/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Lateral Transfers ,
Muldrow v City of St Louis ,
Risk Management ,
SCOTUS ,
Supervisors ,
Title VII
Employers are familiar with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provisions that apply to disabled employees or applicants. However, other portions of the law apply similar prohibitions against discrimination by government...more
6/20/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Bad Faith ,
Damages ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
Government Agencies ,
Public Accommodation ,
Public Schools ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
School Districts ,
SCOTUS ,
Students
Here is a common scenario faced by human resources professionals: An employee complains about unprofessional and bullying behavior by a coworker. After interviewing the two employees and other workers, the employer cannot...more
Over the past several years, EmployNews has chronicled multiple legislative, regulatory, and judicial assaults on the use of noncompetition agreements with employees. These attacks have weakened or eliminated employers'...more
6/13/2025
/ Contract Terms ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforceability ,
Former Employee ,
Garden Leave ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State Labor Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected use of a special legal test for plaintiffs to prove illegal bias in reverse discrimination cases. ...more
6/13/2025
/ Ames v Ohio Department of Youth Services ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Protected Class ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
Unionization campaigns often become heated, resulting in claims and criticism by both management and organized labor that walk a fine line between protected speech and illegal intimidation....more
On June 2, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision interpreting the limitations period for filing lawsuits under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. ...more
6/6/2025
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Dissenting Opinions ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Judicial Authority ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Popular ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations
The applicability of U.S. labor and employment laws to U.S. citizens working outside of the country can be complicated. In general, if the citizen works for a U.S. company outside of the country, they enjoy the same legal...more
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to begin enforcement of English language proficiency (ELP)...more
6/2/2025
/ Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Motor Carriers ,
Motor Vehicles ,
New Guidance ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trump Administration
For employers, workers' compensation laws act as both a sword and a shield. While injured employees do not have to prove negligence resulting in the injury, they cannot sue the employer for personal injury outside of the...more
On May 20, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it will no longer provide funding to state and local EEO agencies for purposes of investigating or prosecuting discrimination charges based on allegations...more
Last week, a federal district court in Texas granted summary judgment to the State of Texas in a lawsuit challenging portions of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s workplace harassment guidance dealing with...more
Mistakes happen, even with sophisticated corporate payroll systems. This can involve duplicate wage payments, paying an employee for unpaid time away from work, or other genuine errors. ...more
5/23/2025
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Policies ,
Minimum Wage ,
Over-Time ,
Overpayment ,
Payroll Deductions ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
When an employee requests an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, this sets into motion an interactive process intended to determine whether the requested accommodation is both reasonable and effective....more
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration shows few signs of progress in finalizing proposed regulations intended to address risks associated with employee exposure to hot working conditions....more
When a commissioned salesperson leaves employment, the most common dispute we encounter involves that employee’s entitlement to payment of commissions after their departure date. ...more
In 2024, the Department of Labor adopted regulations limiting the definition of independent contractors exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and minimum wage requirements....more
Recently, we have seen an unusual spike in client situations involving legal claims associated with discipline or discharge of employees who engage in threatening or disruptive behavior in the workplace....more
Employers sometimes believe that eliminating a job position instead of terminating an employee for poor performance gives them a "get out of jail free" card for purposes of avoiding legal claims associated with the decision....more
5/2/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Termination
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently signed legislation expanding the state’s limitations on the use of noncompetition agreements in employment. Currently, Virginia prohibits employers from entering into noncompetes with...more
5/2/2025
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Low-Wage Workers ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Risk Management ,
State Labor Laws
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring federal agencies from investigating or prosecuting employment discrimination using the disparate impact concept. Most discrimination claims allege that an...more
4/25/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disparate Impact ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Government Agencies ,
Government Investigations ,
Protected Class ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
Workplace Investigations
When an employee unexpectedly dies, the employer’s first instinct often is to take steps to assist his or her family, and to minimize any financial disruption associated with the death. While these goals are laudable,...more
4/18/2025
/ Beneficiaries ,
COBRA ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Deceased ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Payroll Deductions ,
State Labor Laws ,
Tax Liability ,
Wages
Drug testing for marijuana has never been an exact science. There is no consensus on what level of marijuana in the bloodstream constitutes intoxication. Unlike alcohol, employees who used marijuana weeks ago or longer can...more
Recently we had a client pose an interesting question about providing accommodations to disabled temporary workers. A temp agency referred a worker to its client, but advised the client that the worker had requested certain...more
4/18/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Data Privacy ,
Data-Sharing ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Joint Employers ,
PHI ,
Privacy Laws ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Temporary Employees
Sometimes a salaried exempt employee reduces their workload to part-time status. Does this change mean that the employer must reclassify that worker as non-exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act? ...more
4/11/2025
/ Compensation & Benefits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Over-Time ,
Part-Time Employees ,
Salaried Employees