Apropos of nothing employment-related, I read a recent Ohio Supreme Court decision that compels me to warn you before heading out to your favorite watering hole this weekend and ordering a plate of boneless wings. Eat them at your own risk of swallowing a chicken bone. According to the court,…
The common logic is that firing an employee shortly after complaining about workplace discrimination isn’t a good look. Indeed, the tighter the temporal proximity between the two events, the more likely the employee will perceive that the employer retaliated against them for their complaint. But. I read a commonsense Ninth…
Do you remember that scene from Rounders, right after Mike McDermott spots Teddy KGB’s poker “tell,” when Teddy laments, “Hanging around…hanging around… kid’s got alligator blood. Can’t get rid of him.“? It feels that way, with the Federal Trade Commission’s non-compete Rule imposing a comprehensive ban on new non-competes with…
With most eyes focused on a pending lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to eliminate the FTC’s noncompete ban, local employers may have missed the news last week that Governor Shapiro signed into law a measure restricting the use of non-competition agreements in…
No. At least not unless they drive a DeLorean powered by 1.21 gigawatts of electricity that can travel back through time to convert their retroactive request to a prospective one. That’s what I took away from a recent federal court decision involving a military veteran who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress…
Yesterday, we addressed the risks of not letting HR do its job by investigating sexual harassment complaints. Today, we’ll discuss a recent decision underscoring the importance of thoroughly investigating employee complaints. Ironically, the subject of the investigation was an HR supervisor. One of her subordinates complained to the HR Supervisor’s…
Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that a Pennsylvania-based construction company will pay $50,000 and furnish other relief to settle a retaliation lawsuit. According to the EEOC, a human resources manager received and subsequently investigated a complaint of sexual harassment against the company’s general manager. The EEOC alleged…
Recently, a federal judge concluded that an employer accused of contacting a healthcare provider to confirm its suspicions that one of its employees had submitted a false medical certification interfered with the employee’s rights under the Family Medical Leave Act. The plaintiff worked as an attorney for the defendant. According…
Yesterday, we discussed unconscious bias training in the workplace. Today, we’ll talk about an employer that may need some if the allegations in a recently filed complaint against it are true. According to the complaint filed in Michigan state court earlier this month, a 27-year-old African-American man from Detroit applied…
A company fired an employee who objected to completing mandatory unconscious bias training. He claimed retaliation, but an appellate court disagreed and dismissed his lawsuit. I’ll explain why. In 2020, a company official emailed all employees with the subject line: “Continue to Fight for Social Justice.” In the body of…