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The Employer Handbook Blog“Focus on Your Health” Is Not a Lawful Reason to Fire Someone
Whatever the actual reason for firing an employee, the written explanation becomes evidence. A Mississippi restaurant is about to find out what that means. Continue reading
Two Nonsolicitation Mistakes That Can Cost Employers an Injunction
Restrictive covenants often rise or fall at the preliminary injunction stage. A Pennsylvania appellate decision shows how two common drafting mistakes can derail an employer’s attempt to enforce a nonsolicitation agreement. Continue reading
Diagnosis: Not FMLA retaliation, just skipping work for a job interview
Some employment cases hinge on timing, comparators, or complicated workplace dynamics. This one was simpler. A resident skipped work for a job interview and then sent what his supervisors viewed as a contemptuous email when asked about it. Continue reading
Filed under “duh”: Throwing paper clips at work undermines a retaliation claim. Secretly filming your boss doesn’t help either.
Some employment cases turn on close calls, messy comparators, or shaky documentation.
This one turned on something simpler: an employee who admitted to a string of workplace misconduct and still tried to turn the termination into a discrimination, retaliation, and hostile-work-environment case. Continue reading
One harassment claim can knock an entire case out of arbitration
Employers that rely on arbitration agreements should pay attention to a recent Sixth Circuit decision. One plausible sexual-harassment claim can keep an entire lawsuit in court—even claims that would otherwise go to arbitration. Continue reading
The EEOC reversed its restroom-access precedent. Private employers should read the fine print.
For nearly a decade, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said denying a transgender employee access to the restroom matching that employee’s gender identity violated Title VII.
Last month, the agency reversed course.
Private employers should read the fine print before changing anything. Continue reading
Ctrl-Alt-Delete that theory: Sixth Circuit rejects retaliation claim after arrest over unreturned laptop
That escalated quickly.
A university fired its HR director and asked him to return his work laptop. He refused for months. Campus police eventually obtained a felony arrest warrant. When the former employee finally showed up with the laptop, officers arrested him. He then sued for retaliation. Continue reading
When the accommodation request admits the problem
Sometimes the accommodation request itself tells the whole story.
In a recent Fourth Circuit Rehabilitation Act decision, a federal air marshal asked to stay in a ground-based role permanently after medical conditions prevented her from flying. But in doing so, she also acknowledged that she could not perform the essential duties of the job she wanted to keep.
An employee worked 816 hours of overtime. The employer still didn’t owe it.
Can an employee secretly rack up overtime and sue for it later?
The Fifth Circuit says not without proof that the employer knew or should have known about those hours. Continue reading