And she may win. With a tip of my hat to Abby Wargo at Law360, who reported this lawsuit here, I read a bartender’s federal complaint against her former employer. The short of it is this. The plaintiff worked for an adult entertainment venue but was not an adult entertainer or…
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued its second Field Assistance Bulletin of the year. This one is all about protecting workers from retaliation. Retaliation occurs when an employer takes adverse action against an employee because they engaged in a protected activity. The Bulletin provides…
On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to prohibit discrimination based on an individual’s texture or style of hair with a vote of 235-189. It’s called the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2022” or the “CROWN Act of 2022,” and you…
What I’m about to share with you today will never become a Hollywood blockbuster. Actually, it’s so dull that I would sell it over the counter as a holistic sleep aid if I could bottle it. Ambien’s got nothing on wage-and-hour minutiae. Early last year, after President Biden won the…
“Oh, word?” — none of you, hopefully. The Family and Medical Leave Act states that an eligible employee “shall be entitled to a total of twelve workweeks of leave during any twelve-month period” for several qualifying reasons. When I look up the word “shall” in the dictionary, it says, “used…
On March 3, 2022, President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 into law. The name of the new law speaks for itself. Victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault at work that previously signed arbitration agreements can arbitrate their claims but don’t…
Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shared new guidance for employers to avoid caregiver discrimination issues for employees with caregiver responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EEOC included a new section on caregivers/family responsibilities in its ongoing COVID-19 FAQ, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the…
For those of you with businesses in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa, you can skip today’s post, and I’ll see you tomorrow. As for the rest of you, let’s talk about how to pay graveyard shift employees who…
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…
Perhaps you didn’t study this for your SHRM-CP Certification – or even the bar exam. So I’m here to confirm that federal judges frown on employers threatening the families of employees cooperating in a Wage and Hour Division investigation or otherwise exercising their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.…