This lawsuit seems destined to lose. Even in California. Have I said “You can’t make this stuff up” in the last six weeks or so? No? Cool. You can’t make this stuff up. In case you needed a cautionary tale about workplace...more
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
A handy guide on what not to do. A federal judge in Florida has ruled that a former Human Resources manager for a law firm will get a jury trial on her claims related to her termination right before she was due to return...more
The unconditional offer of reinstatement. Are you perfect? So am I. But I’ve been told that there are people in the world who sometimes make mistakes.
Sometimes employers do things that they think they have a perfect right...more
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
The teacher had a religious objection.
The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday found in favor of a West Point public school teacher whose employment was terminated because he would not address a transgender student by the...more
12/15/2023
/ Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Demurrers ,
Documentation ,
Due Process ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Free Exercise Clause ,
Free Speech ,
Groff v DeJoy ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Beliefs ,
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ,
School Boards ,
Teachers ,
Termination ,
Transgender ,
VA Supreme Court ,
Written Descriptions
You won't want to miss this!!! You all probably read respectable news sources. I subscribe to a number of "sober" mainstream publications, but have a sick attraction to the Daily Mail and the New York Post....more
12/8/2023
/ Age Discrimination ,
Complaint Procedures ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Performance Reviews ,
Performance Standards ,
Protected Class ,
Recruitment Policies ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour
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
Then again, it may have been that "FU" text I sent the boss.
You can't make this stuff up.
For those of you who think I'm too hard on employers, today is your day. There was an excellent pro-employer decision recently...more
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
Inquiring minds want to know!
It's been a slow week for real news, and we have a long weekend coming up. But I found two stories relating to employees (one was a law partner, so technically not an employee) who blew their...more
So misunderstood!
NOTE FROM ROBIN: Earlier this year, I began a series of very basic explanations of the federal laws that govern the workplace. The first installment covered discrimination in general, and the second...more
9/16/2022
/ ADEA ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
At-Will Employment ,
Discrimination ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
USERRA ,
Wage and Hour
The court is right, I think.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion on Wednesday that provides helpful clarification for employers and their leave administrators.
...more
There was this disability discrimination issue . . .
An employer who shall remain nameless had a tradition of throwing a little birthday party for each of its employees on their special day.
The birthday of one employee...more
4/22/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Social Anxiety Disorder ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Violence
Don't rely on it too much -- yet.
We recently got our first federal court decision addressing whether an employer had the right to require employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The court's answer was yes...
...more
7/2/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Food and Drug Act ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Popular ,
Pregnancy ,
Religious Exemption ,
Suspensions ,
Termination ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
Mere "misuse" of information is not enough.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided yesterday that a criminal conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act cannot be based merely on misusing information obtained through a...more
6/4/2021
/ Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Confidential Information ,
Databases ,
FBI ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Police ,
SCOTUS ,
Termination ,
Trade Secrets ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Van Buren v United States
Just before the Memorial Day holiday, we had a “breaking news” bulletin about the revised guidance published Friday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about employers’ and employees’ rights when it came to...more
6/3/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Confidential Information ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
GINA ,
Guidance Update ,
Health Care Providers ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Incentives ,
Personnel Records ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations
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
Bless this employer's heart.
Ten years ago or so, every employment lawyer and his sister was calling the interaction between workers' compensation, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act...more
4/9/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Light-Duty Positions ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Pregnancy Disability Leave Law ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workers' Compensation Claim ,
Workplace Injury
The latest.
President Joe Biden has nominated Jennifer Abruzzo, special counsel with the Communication Workers of America union, to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. This is the position that was...more
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
Welcome to the future.
With the dramatic changes in acceptance of medical and even recreational marijuana, employers need to take a fresh look at the way they maintain drug-free workplaces. Here are some tips for surviving...more
Employers make their own luck.
When it comes to terminations of employment, are you lucky or unlucky? Take our quiz and find out! As always, the answers appear after each question, so you can cheat all you want, and we'll...more
Through the miracle of virtual reality.
Do you feel awkward when you have to fire an employee? Guilty? Nervous? Gleeful, you sick person?...more