Employees on approved Family and Medical Leave are entitled to reinstatement upon return to the same or an equivalent position. Commonly, when the employee is absent on leave, the employer discovers work performance issues...more
Employers already know that Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin and citizenship status. However, they may not be aware that the federal Immigration and Nationality Act also contains...more
Earlier this month, Massachusetts’ Republican governor signed into law a bipartisan bill requiring employers to pay men and women equally for similar work. The law’s basic requirement is one in place in many states and under...more
In a typical corporate transaction, the parties structure the deal as an asset purchase, whereby the buyer purchases essentially all of the company’s property, equipment, goodwill, customer lists, etc. If the asset purchase...more
When a terminated employee alleges that her firing resulted from discrimination or retaliation, employers often dispute those claims by noting that the employer never hired anyone to take the terminated employee’s position....more
7/26/2016
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Protected Class ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Remand ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Termination ,
Title VII
In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an Enforcement Guidance stating when employers’ use of criminal background checks to exclude applicants from jobs violates Title VII. The Guidance states the EEOC’s...more
7/13/2016
/ Appeals ,
Attorney General ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Disparate Impact ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Felons ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Justiciable Controversy ,
Remand ,
Standing ,
Title VII
How should Human Resources respond to the following scenario?: An employee reports that she recently separated from her husband and obtained a domestic violence restraining order. Several co-workers approach HR to report that...more
Title VII and related federal civil rights laws contain short administrative claims periods that often result in preclusion of actions filed after expiration of these dates. These exclusions lead to frequent litigation...more
5/31/2016
/ Constructive Discharge ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Green v Brennan ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Race Discrimination ,
Resignation ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Title VII ,
USPS
The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from refusing to hire qualified individuals with a disability on the basis of their condition, if they can perform the essential functions of the job with or without...more
5/18/2016
/ Administrative Remedies ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Essential Functions ,
FMCSA ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Medical Examinations ,
Popular ,
Remand ,
Reversal
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was adopted, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has considered morbid obesity to fall within the definition of a protected disability. Earlier this month, the Eighth Circuit...more
The Family and Medical Leave Act imposes liability for interference by the “employer” with leave rights. Typically, the disgruntled employee asserts FMLA claims against the company employing him or her, but the Act also...more
In recent months, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated its position that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act generally prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities or records of past disabilities. For example, an employer could not refuse to hire an applicant who has been through...more
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide 60 days advance notice to employees of certain qualifying plant closings and mass layoffs. The WARN thresholds are based on...more
Title VII prohibits discrimination based on gender. Employers generally cannot adopt different qualification standards for men and women for the same job. However in some circumstances, federal courts have recognized that...more
Plaintiffs can sue for employment discrimination under federal civil rights laws using two theories. Disparate treatment claims allege that the plaintiff was treated differently based on his or her protected status. Disparate...more
In general, once an employee tenders his or her notice of resignation, the employer is under no legal obligation to rescind acceptance of the notice. Last month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals cast doubt on this rule by...more
In North Carolina, an initial offer of employment serves as adequate legal consideration to support non-competition and non-solicitation restrictive covenants. However, once a person is already employed, the employer must pay...more
Employers that receive requests for accommodation made by a disabled employee must remain careful about making significant changes to that employee’s terms and conditions of employment prior to concluding review and...more
Earlier this year in its Abercrombie decision, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that an employee suing for religious discrimination did not have to demonstrate actual knowledge of an employee’s religious practices to trigger...more
In some situations, employees taking Family and Medical Leave were on shaky grounds with regard to their continuing employment prior to the absence. The employer then moves to terminate the employee either while he remains on...more
Time and time again, human resource professionals get blank stares when they ask managers for documentation supporting their strong desire to get rid of an employee they consider to be a poor performer. Not having prepared...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to engage in an interactive process to determine if a qualified individual with a disability can perform the essential functions of the job through provision of...more
Most employers using temporary workers from an employment agency assume that they are liable as employers for certain legal claims. While a reasonable assumption, until last week, this status had never been formally...more
8/3/2015
/ Appeals ,
Control Test ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
Multi-Factor Test ,
Remand ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Supervisors ,
Temporary Employees ,
Title VII
As previously reported in EmployNews, recent National Labor Relations Board decisions have disrupted established guidelines with regard to employers’ obligations to tolerate uncivil and insulting behavior and comments from...more