Last week, we discussed an FMLA policy that your business needs to rip from its employee handbook and burn with fire. This week, we revisit an Americans Disabilities Act policy that should end up on the paper shredder: the 100% healed policy. If your business has a policy that requires…
Folks, I’ve lost track of the number of disability accommodation requests on which I’ve counseled human resources concerning employee requests to work full-time from home. So, when I came across a recent decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit involving a failure-to-accommodate claim…
André Koehne, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Early in my career, I learned that it’s bad form for a lawyer to accuse another party of having “lied.” Judges generally frown upon this. So, you can imagine that my interest was piqued when I read an Eighth Circuit decision issued…
Employers that maintain a policy of treating any employee unable to return to work following the expiration of FMLA leave as having voluntarily resigned are begging for trouble. But don’t just take my word for it. According to a recent press release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the…
***checks notes*** unlawful In a press release issued on Monday, the EEOC claims that an employer violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it unlawful to discriminate based on pregnancy, when it failed to hire an applicant as a hair braider because she was pregnant.…
Let me set the scene for you. A teacher who had just taken leave under the Family Medical Leave Act during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to undergo heart and kidney transplant surgeries learns that the school where he teaches is requiring in-school teaching. Because he is immunocompromised, his…
Back in the day, it could be difficult for a plaintiff claiming disability discrimination even to prove that they had a disability. Before Congress amended the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2008, the Supreme Court held that an impairment must be “permanent or long term” to qualify as a disability.…
I’ll go ahead and file this one under: “Ya think?” But perhaps I’m getting out over my skis. So, let’s see what you think. The employee was a bank teller who filed a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against her employer. She later resigned, claiming…
An employee claiming that she endured sexual harassment must present evidence of “severe or pervasive” conduct based on her sex that was bad enough to interfere with her working conditions or create an intimidating workplace. When a plaintiff initially presents these claims in court an initial filing, she does not…
The answer is yes. (You weren’t expecting that, were you?) But here’s the thing. The company must base its decision not to rehire a former employee on a legitimate reason. For example, suppose an employee worked as a bartender, and the company terminated her employment for being late to work…