President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990, thirty-six years ago yesterday. Here’s the timeline that brought us from that signing to the law you manage today, and where the real risk lives now.
Menopause is about to get its own line in the U.S. Code, if two House members get their way. Water bottles, bathroom breaks, and sit-or-stand accommodations would become presumptively reasonable under a brand-new federal standard.
A jury handed down two verdicts in the same ADA case that couldn’t both be true. The trial judge tossed one out, and a federal appeals court just said she was right to.
On July 21, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted, publicly, to kill sixty years of federal race, sex, and national origin reporting. Cue the sad violins. This is happening.
A supervisor was shown a slur drawn across a face on a breakroom whiteboard and shrugged it off. A federal appeals court didn’t.
The blog isn’t going anywhere, and it’s staying free. But I’m exploring a flat-fee option for companies and employers who read this blog: unlimited employment law advice, instead of billing by the hour for every quick question. Before I decide whether to build it, I want your input on what it should look like.
An employee accused his manager of anti-Black bias over comments made eight months earlier. A federal appeals court said the comments were about politics, not race, and the case fell apart.
She said the training singled out white employees as inherently racist. Her own testimony said otherwise, and that’s what sank her case.
In January, then-Governor Phil Murphy signed a law creating a reinstatement right that never existed before. For employers of any size. It takes effect July 17, and even employers confident they’ve got employee-leave compliance handled could be blindsided.
A hospital and university didn’t just demote an employee over his criticism of a race-based practice. They went on social media to trash him, and that’s the bigger legal problem.
The Employer Handbook Blog