From the feds. This week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice issued technical assistance materials on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including one document titled...more
3/21/2025
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Harassment ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
Try wrapping your head around this one. All of you experts on the Family and Medical Leave Act, gather 'round!
The following is from a real lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in federal court in Indianapolis. The plaintiff...more
As we welcome 2025, here are 10 must-read Constangy bulletins and blog posts from 2024, highlighting insights that guided our readers through important legal developments, workplace issues, and the challenges in cybersecurity...more
1/9/2025
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Bias ,
Breach Notification Rule ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Green Cards ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Minimum Salary ,
NFL ,
NLRB ,
O-1 Aliens of Extraordinary Ability ,
Race Discrimination ,
Racial Bias ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SolarWinds ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
You can't make this stuff up.
I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving.
A federal judge just down the road from me ruled this week that a woman’s retaliation case should go to a jury, even though her sexual harassment...more
Here are the four things the employer did right. I hope everyone had a fun Halloween last night.
And before Halloween gets too far into the distant past, check out this scary HR story: A full-time adjunct instructor at the...more
11/1/2024
/ Adjunct Faculty ,
Documentation ,
Employment Contract ,
Ethics ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Investigations ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Based on a real lawsuit. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Facts may not be 100 percent accurate. PART ONE: Imagine you're the boss. You run a fast-food franchise, Flippin' Burgers. You hire Gwendolyn to...more
10/25/2024
/ Absenteeism ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Interference Claims ,
Notification Requirements ,
Professional Disciplinary Actions ,
Retaliation ,
Serious Health Conditions ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour ,
Written Communications
Don't be this employer. (Allegedly.) Not long ago, I posted about an employer who won summary judgment in an FMLA case and noted five things that the employer did right, which helped it win. Sad to say, a decision came out...more
How'd that happen? An employer who terminated an employee after he took intermittent FMLA leave for diabetes won its case, and recently won again on appeal. According to both courts, the employee appeared to be trying to...more
9/20/2024
/ Clearance ,
Commercial Driving Licenses ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Family Medical Leave ,
FMCSA ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Interference Claims ,
Intermittent Leave ,
Medical Certification Requests ,
Performance Reviews ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour
Employer's DEI mandate scores a win. A white guy refused to take his employer's mandatory "unconscious bias" training, and he was fired. He sued the employer for retaliation, his lawsuit was dismissed, and this week an...more
7/12/2024
/ Bias ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity ,
Employee Training ,
Insubordination Policy ,
Race Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Termination ,
Title VI ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Don't shoot from the hip.
Let's say you have an employee who is in Week Six of "employee's own serious health condition" leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Her co-worker comes to you and tells you that the...more
These six will get the EEOC's attention in 2024-28.
Last week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its Strategic Enforcement Plan for 2024-28. Strategic Enforcement Plans provide a helpful preview of...more
9/29/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bias ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Pregnancy ,
Retaliation ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Vulnerable Victims
Morals based on a real court decision.
My law partner Jon Yarbrough alerted me to a recent court decision that is full of little gems for employers. I thought I'd break the decision down into "true fables," each with a...more
4/28/2023
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Disability ,
Employment Contract ,
Good Faith ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Morals Clauses ,
Protected Activity ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Termination ,
Title IX ,
Wage and Hour
Mental illness can cause problems at work, and keep employees from getting help.
If my experience is typical (and it may not be), it seems that a significant percentage of employers’ legal and Human Resources problems come...more
3/31/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Attendance ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Mental Health ,
Performance Reviews ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Social Media ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Even if the employee doesn't qualify.
Picture this. You ask your boss whether you can take leave under the FMLA. Your boss asks why you want the leave, and you say your cat is sick.* It's your favorite cat. Your boss...more
The right to bore, and not to be bored.
These two cases are not from the U.S.A. But they have some good lessons for U.S. employers.
Case One: "C'est cool d'être ringard." (English translation: "It's hip to be square.") A...more
Employers, don't be too rigid about employee notice requirements.
Weird case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Imagine this: You're the HR manager at a manufacturing facility. An hourly employee has...more
Probably. Employers, get ready.
Will EEOC lawyers do an end run around the EEOC commissioners? If so, employers are likely to see more lawsuits with the EEOC as a plaintiff, which is never a good thing....more
Just about every state or federal employment law has an anti-retaliation provision. Very simply put, anti-retaliation provisions are intended to protect individuals who either pursue their rights under the law, who assist...more
Employers, don't get played.
"This is an employment-at-will state, and I can fire you for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all."
Oh, yeah?...
...more
5/28/2021
/ At-Will Employment ,
Discrimination ,
Documentation ,
Due Process ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblowers
There's a new sheriff in town . . . . . .
so y'all better straighten up.
You probably know by now that the Biden Administration fired Sharon Fast Gustafson, the Trump-appointed General Counsel of the Equal Employment...more
3/12/2021
/ Age Discrimination ,
Biden Administration ,
EEO ,
EEOC General Counsel ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Joe Biden ,
Mediation ,
Medical Leave ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Race Discrimination ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
Should the employer force the issue?
You Human Resources professionals are familiar with this scenario.
You are present while a supervisor is disciplining an employee. The supervisor has a write-up, pre-approved by you, and...more
Don't take "don't guess" too literally.
One bit of very standard advice that all attorneys give to their clients before they testify in a deposition or in court is "Don't speculate." If you don't know something, don't try...more
HR people, you know what I'm talking about.
Sharks, vampires, tornadoes, heights, and evil clowns are scary. But sometimes the scariest thing to a management-side lawyer is what employers themselves say. Here are 10 things...more
Or almost everything.
Employers, has this ever happened to you?
You have a lousy employee, whom we'll call "Igor." You've been meaning to do something about Igor for a while but just haven't gotten around to it....more
And you thought you had problems!
A medical clinic in the St. Louis area had two employees (among others, I presume). "Rose" was African-American. "Daisy" (race unknown) had a disability. ...more