Days since I’ve blogged about COVID-19 = 78 0. I promise(ish), this one will be interesting. And for those of you with businesses that had a mass layoff or plant closing because of COVID-19, it will be horrifying. You see, I just got finished reading a Fifth Circuit decision in…
More employers now are using software, algorithms, and artificial intelligence to make smarter hiring decisions. There’s nothing inherently unlawful about that. Except, consider this. Maybe the algorithm intentionally or unintentionally “screens out” an individual with a disability, even though that individual can do the job with a reasonable accommodation. Tangentially, an…
Probably not. My Google Alerts were blowing up this weekend with reports of the story: Florida teacher allegedly fired after discussing sexuality with students Florida Teacher Fired for Discussing Sexual Orientation Sparks Debate Teacher Says She Was Fired After Talking to Students About Sexuality Most of the reports I read…
I’ll take “blog post titles that I never thought I’d be using in 2022 ever” for $500. On this blog, I’ve often said that employees may have freedom of speech on social media. But their actions can have consequences at work because there is no corresponding constitutional right to a…
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is providing strategies for employers to expand employment opportunities for workers with unemployment gaps. And there’s also a double-secret EEO-1 Component 1 Report filing extension. Employing the unemployed Last week, the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance…
Last night, I read this federal court opinion where a defendant, sued after firing a plaintiff who used CBD for her disability, got the entire case dismissed. So, let’s talk about how and why. According to the plaintiff’s complaint, she had a disability for which she used an over-the-counter CBD…
In case you somehow missed the EEOC’s big announcement – I cut the ribbon – all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting specific criteria have until May 17, 2022 to submit workforce demographics, including data by race/ethnicity, sex, and job…
Image Credit: u/AMasterfulWriter on Reddit. Not even in Kentucky. Over on the r/antiwork Subreddit, a goldmine for employment law blog fodder, a Redditor posted this notice that a boss displayed in the breakroom at work and asked, “is this sign legal?” The sign reads: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, CONVERSING ABOUT WAGES (BOTH…
Imagine showing up to work last Friday only to have your boss tell you that you are fired, laugh, and walk off. This supposedly happened to a Reddit user who posted about it here in the r/antiwork subreddit. According to the Redditor, he spent the next two hours following his…
Some of you require your employees to sign agreements requiring them to arbitrate employment claims — other than claims of sexual harassment or abuse, of course. But what happens if your employees later sign another agreement — a severance agreement, for example — that doesn’t contain an arbitration provision? One…