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The Employer Handbook Blog

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HR sorta admitting retaliation is generally a bad defense to an employee’s retaliation lawsuit

That’s Employment Law 101. And that’s basically how it went down in this recent federal court opinion from Tennessee, where the plaintiff claimed that her former employer fired her in retaliation for an email she sent to HR complaining about alleged gender discrimination and harassment. How does one demonstrate retaliation? Well, a…

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Court says employee’s Facebook page on race stereotypes is fair game at trial

Many times — most recently last Friday — I’ve discussed instances in which the 24/7 world of social media has cost individuals their jobs. But, here’s a little twist. Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania federal court ruled here that a plaintiff’s Facebook page called “Yo know yo ass is from the da hood,” could…

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Here are the 3 biggest workplace compliance concerns for the next year? No. 2 will SHOCK you!

No it won’t. But, I do like click-bait. Seriously though, I came across Littler Mendelson’s Executive Employer Survey Report, which “examines the legal, economic and social issues having the greatest impact on the workplace, based on survey responses from 844 in-house counsel, human resources professionals and C-suite executives from a range…

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A jury will hear the ADA claim of a diabetic cashier, fired for drinking life-saving juice from a store refrigerator

I imagine that this juice won’t be worth the squeeze. A couple years ago, I blogged here about a case in which a national drug store store fired a diabetic cashier for violating its “grazing” policy. That is, she opened a $1.39 bag of chips, without having paid for it first. However,…

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A grown man’s Facebook rant about ‘Pokémon Go’ led to his firing

Are playing Pokémon Go  on your smartphone yet? Of course not, you’re a Human Resource Professional, or in-house counsel, or employment lawyer in private practice. Me neither. Ok, maybe I might have downloaded the app purely for blog-related research and to catch ’em all. But, it’s not like I’m going to lose…

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A new House bill would expand FMLA coverage to very small businesses

How small? Well, the Family and Medical Leave Enhancement Act of 2016 would amend the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees at worksites that employ 15 or more employees. (Currently, the magic number is 50). But wait, there’s more. From the bill summary: An employee covered by FMLA may take up…

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“We are looking to add a few young professionals” and an age-bias lawsuit, apparently.

From a reader who wishes to be identified as “ever faithful blog lover”: A while ago you mentioned ads with “digital native” as being a cover for trying to recruit “young” folks and being an ADEA violation… so what do you think of an ad that says (twice) “Young professionals” wanted?…

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This, right here, is the LGBT-discrimination case for employers to watch

According to Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed.com (here), 128 members of Congress filed a brief in Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., urging the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to conclude the discrimination based on sexual orientation is sex discrimination and, therefore, violates Title VII. So, yes, you should pay attention. I…