Earlier this month, a federal appellate court addressed a few situations involving retaliation claims in the workplace in which parties (and sometimes courts) may misapply the law, namely, Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964.
So, let’s clear this up. Continue reading
If your business provides a self-funded health insurance plan to its employees, that health plan covers “medically necessary” services, and you’re not keen on defending sex discrimination claims, then keep reading. Continue reading
An employer recently learned the hard way that a proper response to an employee’s complaint of harassment involves more than simply investigating it.
I’ll explain. Continue reading
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee announced that it had advanced the Protecting Older Americans Act, which would invalidate forced arbitration clauses requiring employees to arbitrate age discrimination claims, whether for disparate treatment, disparate impact, harassment, or retaliation.
15 Senators voted in favor and 6 against.
Continue reading
Occasionally, I post about MONSTER discrimination jury verdicts, some in the seven and eight figures. I do it for shock value and, often, the clicks. (Guilty as charged.)
But posts about the subsequent remittitur, where a federal judge slashes the compensatory or punitive damages award to $300,000 or less, don’t get nearly as many clicks. Continue reading
Today, I will tell you about an employee caught sleeping on the job.
Several times. Continue reading
Yesterday, I wrote about how the DEA’s move to ease restrictions on marijuana would change the ADA landscape for employers by requiring accommodations for employees with disabilities who use medical cannabis to treat.
For now, however, marijuana remains a Schedule One drug. So, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect individuals with actual disabilities who lose their jobs for testing positive because the ADA does not protect individuals engaging in “the illegal use of drugs” within the meaning of the statute.
But what if the employee does not have an actual disability? Continue reading
Last week, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would move to reclassify marijuana (cannabis), moving it from Schedule I, where it’s currently listed with heroin and LSD, to Schedule III, with as less dangerous doctor-prescribed drugs like (Tylenol with codeine) and testosterone. Continue reading
Readers of this blog know that the EEOC recently finalized its new workplace harassment guidance and that one of the contentious issues in the guidance, according to a dissenting EEOC Commissioner, is the EEOC’s position that misgendering an employee, e.g., by consistently using the wrong pronouns, can violate Title VII. Continue reading
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division published new guidance reminding employers that the use of artificial intelligence and other automated technologies to track work hours, optimize employee performance, and administer leaves of absence does not excuse compliance with the laws that the WHD enforces, namely, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Continue reading
The Employer Handbook Blog