Roberts v. Clark County (NV) School District involved a female-to-male transgender police officer. Although the School District later changed its policy, when Bradley Roberts first told the District in 2011 that he was...more
A number of employers and employer groups — including the National Association of Manufacturers and Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. — filed suit last week in a federal court in Texas seeking to block parts of the...more
These will be really quick takes, since there are so many of them, on the proposed Enforcement Guidance on National Origin Discrimination issued this week by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (The actual document...more
Your kid plays a joke on you, and you respond, “I’m gonna kill you” while laughing at the joke. Idle threat, or serious?
A co-worker tells you she will slash your tires if you vote against the union. Idle threat, or...more
On May 17, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its final rules on wellness programs and the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The ADA rule applies to...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has published a new Fact Sheet on LGBT discrimination that employers will find helpful. As I’ve reported before here and here, the agency is taking an aggressive position regarding...more
A federal appeals court panel has come out with a decision interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Young v. UPS, and the result wasn’t too good for the employer.
The Sheriff’s Department of Ulster...more
Argh! I was hoping not to have to talk about HB 2 again (North Carolina’s notorious “bathroom bill”), but there has been so much misinformation about what it did to wrongful discharge claims that I’ve just gotta....more
If your employee isn’t a professional driver but spends a lot of time on the road, how “essential” a job function is driving for ADA purposes? Is driving “essential” at all?
In what I consider to be a very significant...more
The proposal was announced by President Obama in a White House ceremony last week celebrating the seventh anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
The proposal could certainly have been worse. The EEOC would...more
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a “friend of the court” brief in a sexual orientation discrimination appeal, arguing that sexual orientation discrimination is “sex discrimination” prohibited by Title VII....more
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last Friday to review a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which vacated a multi-million attorneys’ fee award for trucking company CRST Van Expedited, Inc. The Equal...more
Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a proposed rule on employer wellness programs and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. In April, the EEOC issued a proposed rule on employer wellness...more
“An apple a day keeps the doctor lawyer away.” Here are five easy and inexpensive things that employers can do to minimize their risk of being sued and maximize their chances of victory if they do get sued. None of these...more
8/8/2015
/ Complaint Procedures ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disclosure ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Information Sharing ,
Misclassification ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Wrongful Termination
Here’s a lesson: Don’t call your employee an “old fart,” especially if you think you may need to fire him someday.
And don’t call his co-workers “old farts” right before you fire the co-workers.
...more
On Wednesday, I did a very short “breaking news” post on the new Interpretation issued by Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil on when workers are “employees” versus “independent contractors” under the Fair Labor Standards...more
Last Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued its amended guidance on pregnancy discrimination and accommodation in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Young v. UPS, issued in March 2015. The...more
On Monday, a federal jury in Atlanta awarded two hourly warehouse workers $2.2 million in a lawsuit brought under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
The controversy started when Atlas Logistics Group Retail...more
We asked attorneys writing on JD Supra to share with us their initial thoughts on the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision in favor of same-sex marriage equaliy, especially with the regard to the...more
6/26/2015
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
DOMA ,
First Glance ,
Marriage Equality ,
Obergefell v. Hodges ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
US v Windsor ,
Young Lawyers
First Glance perspective by attorney Robin Shea of the Supreme Court's recent Religious Accommodation decision in EEOC v. Abercrombie. Spoiler alert: more alarming than it sounds....more
6/2/2015
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
EEOC v Abercrombie ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
First Glance ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Popular ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Title VII
Maybe it’s just me, but workplace harassment issues seem to come in waves — I’ll go months, or even a year, without an issue, and then WHAM! everybody has a “situation,” or at least they need to get their preventive training...more
Are harassment and retaliation lawsuits all going to the jury now? Are employers doomed? Are the plaintiffs’ lawyers popping the champagne corks? Is the EEOC dancing for joy?...more
The employer community has been waiting for years to receive guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on wellness programs and how an employer’s obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act intersect...more
Is the proposed rule good for employers, or bad? Pretty good overall. The EEOC has, for the most part, proposed that providing “incentives” for employees to participate in wellness programs (both rewards and penalties, which...more
In the context of a lawsuit brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a recent court decision says that “regular attendance” is an essential function of the job. But what is “regular attendance”?...more