Ranae Sheppard is lucky to be alive. A wife, mother of four, and integral litigation support provider to law firms like mine, Ranae was among the many North Carolina residents whose lives were turned upside down (or worse) in less than 24 hours by Hurricane Helene’s force and carnage. For…
Many of your employees and applicants will celebrate religious holidays between now and the end of the year. Today, for example, is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, which began last night at sundown. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer to…
In 2015, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that a federal agency that denied an employee equal access to a common bathroom/facility corresponding to the employee’s gender identity discriminated based on sex and could not restrict a transgender employee to a single-user restroom. About five years later, the Supreme…
Today’s lesson is about the interplay between the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires employers to accommodate known disabilities absent undue hardship, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect last year and also requires an employer to accommodate known limitations related to, affected by, or arising out of…
In the past week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has brought two lawsuits against employers that allegedly violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against transgender employees. In one of the lawsuits, the EEOC claims that a transgender employee complained that she believed a manager had…
I’ve read this post and this post about this recent lawsuit about seven current and former employees who claim they were forced to work with ‘Nazi sympathizers.’ They allege that the company hired and promoted a white employee with a swastika tattoo on his face and ties to a white…
Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission filed a notice of appeal with the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, signifying that it will ask the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a trial judge’s August 15 decision to enjoin enforcement of its sweeping noncompete ban. Should…
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…
Oh, I thought you knew. Ok, fine. I’ll answer my own question. Let’s look at a recent opinion from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. It involves an employee with diabetes who took leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act a few times. In August 2017, he returned a…