Managing Employee Compliance in Highly Regulated Industries — Hiring to Firing Podcast
The Labor Law Insider: Recent U.S. Supreme Court, NLRB Decisions Highlight Labor Issues in Higher Education
Podcast - The Latest on Antitrust and Non-Compete Agreements in Healthcare
Protecting Trade Secrets When Facing Lawsuits or Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures
Episode 138 -- Employee Relations and Engagement in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era
Day 19 of One Month to More Effective Continuous Improvement-Use of Social Media for Continuous Improvement
Seyfarth Synopsis: In two cases issued by the Seventh Circuit, Passarella and Dottenwhy v. Aspirus, Inc. and Bube and Hedrington v. Aspirus Hospital, Inc. the Court held that at the motion to dismiss stage, the fact that a...more
Settles Federal Charges Nationwide Furniture Retailer Failed to Accommodate an Employee’s Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs and Terminated Her - MOBILE, Ala. – Hank’s Furniture, Inc. (HFI), a nationwide furniture retailer,...more
How can I support my Muslim colleagues who are fasting during Ramadan? Is it OK to ask them questions? Working with Muslim colleagues over the years, I have been inspired by the discipline and resilience of those who fast...more
Attacks on Non-Disclosure, Confidentiality, and Non-Compete Agreements in 2023 - On several fronts in 2023, we saw federal agencies and entities attacking the scope and enforceability of certain employment agreements,...more
Five Ward and Smith attorneys offered timely updates on religious accommodations, professional licensing, pregnancy laws, remote work, and independent contractor rules during the firm’s recent annual Employment Law Symposium....more
On September 6, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a new law (A6604 / S4982) that prohibits New York employers and employment agencies from discriminating or retaliating against employees who refuse to attend...more
Federal Agencies and lawmakers will continue to be very active throughout 2023. Here are our top 5 tips for companies as we enter the second half of 2023....more
So far, 2023 has been a wild ride for employers, a theme that looks to be continuing into the third quarter of the year. While certain predictions we made during Q1 came true in Q2 (we are looking at you, NLRB), others such...more
Religious accommodation historically - Employers are quite familiar with the concept of “accommodation;” however, for the last 46 years they have not had to spend much time or effort dealing with an employee’s request to...more
In Groff v. DeJoy, decided today, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the standard for employers to determine what constitutes an undue burden that would permit an employer to reject an employee’s request for a religious...more
The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed summary judgment in favor of an employer in a religious discrimination case involving a teacher who refused to call transgender students by their chosen names....more
This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment and labor law developments at the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeal over the last month. ...more
If you take on a federal contract, does that make you a state actor? No, according to a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker Company. During World War II, the Army included Smucker’s apple butter in its...more
Health care employment law was once again a critical focus for many legislative bodies in 2022. While much of our 2021 Year in Review focused on how states addressed the COVID-19 pandemic itself, most notably with respect to...more
Dear Littler: We are a retail store with locations across the country. We are open seven days a week, and our sales staff have rotating shifts to provide coverage throughout the week. A number of employees in several of...more
Accommodating an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs can be tricky. In EEOC v. Kroger, a court in Arkansas gives some guidance on how to handle these claims. The case law surrounding religious failure-to-accommodate...more
In Public Health Sudbury & Districts v. Ontario Nurses’ Association, 2022 CanLii 48440 (ON LA), Arbitrator Robert J. Herman decided that the grievor was discriminated against on the basis of creed under the Ontario Human...more
Over the last year, our society has navigated COVID-19 and rules concerning vaccination and masking. As a society and on this blog, we have discussed regularly the role religious freedoms play in the work environment—under...more
On October 25, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its guidance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, adding a brand-new section addressing religious objections to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. ...more
On October 25, 2021, as more employers adopt workplace vaccination requirements for their employees, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) updated its guidance concerning requiring COVID-19 vaccinations in...more
Last week, the EEOC provided updated COVID-19 guidance to employers on vaccines and vaccine incentives in the employment realm. One area, however, in which the agencies has been silent is in the public accommodation space and...more
With multiple states rolling out phased access to COVID-19 vaccines, many employers are considering whether they want to require employees to be vaccinated, how to encourage employee vaccinations, and the implications of...more
With the first inoculations of the COVID-19 vaccine making headlines over the past few weeks, employers are starting to plan for the impact this will have on their businesses. The development of a vaccine inspires hope that a...more
On December 16, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued guidance for employers regarding the intersection of employer COVID-19 vaccine policies and various federal equal employment opportunity...more
In the hierarchy of employment discrimination laws, religious discrimination has traditionally been viewed as the proverbial unwanted stepchild, with pro-employer “undue hardship” exceptions to accommodation requirements that...more