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The Employer Handbook Blog

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U.S. Department of Labor slims down and gets more user friendly. Too creepy?

Maxpixel: Nutrition Scale Weight Loss Weight Let’s start over with a less awkward headline. Ok, here goes… Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor eliminated approximately 3,200 guidance documents (almost 11,700 pages) from its database. These documents are rescinded and no longer carry any weight with the DOL. Additionally, the…

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Four ways to avoid wage and hour worries when employees work remotely

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Hopefully, you know by now that you should be tracking the time of non-exempt employees working remotely during this pandemic. If this is news to you, well… But, have you figured out an excellent way to track hours that an employee works, even though…

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1,250,000 reasons to take all complaints of race discrimination seriously

Two black employees complain to a supervisor that a white co-worker is taunting them with racial pejoratives. What do you do? Take the complaint seriously, investigate, and take other steps that are reasonably designed to end the complained-of behavior, nothing, or ignore the complaint, just like the racist graffiti of…

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Can a business legally require face masks in the workplace? Would sarcasm change the answer?

Image by Hatice EROL from Pixabay Let’s find out… Face mask mandates have spawned a spate of lawsuits by patrons of restaurants and grocery stores. Are face mask mandates akin to “no shirt, no shoes, no service”? Or is there something more when requiring face masks? Shout out to Jelisa…

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Court: Free speech may protect city employee’s Facebook post about wanting to kill Tamir Rice

Image Credit: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net License: CC0 Public Domain I’ve said many times before on this blog that employees always have the right to freedom of speech — even on social media. But, words have consequences. And no law guarantees the right to continued employment. But, there are limited exceptions to that…

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An indefinite leave of absence may be an ADA reasonable accommodation. Wait, WHAT?!?

Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay As employment lawyers, we counsel clients that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to requests for reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Indeed, they are very fact-specific. Although, there is one fundamental immutable truth; namely, a request for an indefinite leave of absence is…

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The National Labor Relations Board ain’t got nothin’ on NJ when it comes to COVID-19 whistleblowers

Image Credit EpicTop10.com (Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC By 2.0)) If, during this pandemic, you do business in a state with a robust whistleblower law, keep reading. Yesterday, over at the Coronavirus Law Blog, my friend Jon Hyman wrote here about a nurse who was fired after refusing to share gowns…

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COVID-19 doesn’t prevent claims of sexual harassment. Just ask a certain hockey mascot. 🏒🦁

Santeri Viinamäki / CC BY-SA We’re in the middle of a pandemic. While telework and ‘social distancing’ don’t eliminate the possibility of a sexual harassment claim, let’s face it, we’re not exactly in the same #MeToo world as we were last year. But that doesn’t mean that businesses can take…

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It’s a mini COVID-19 Q and A! (Before I see y’all on Zoom today at Noon EDT.)

Marcin Wichary / CC BY Before we see what’s in the mailbag, here’s your final reminder to register (here) for today’s free Zoom session at Noon EDT today with me and some of my friends from the EEOC. We’re going to be talking mediation, pro-tips, and the new pilot program.…

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An internal DOL audit reveals the three ways in which COVID-19 has hampered the agency

Image by Лечение наркомании from Pixabay Let’s give credit where credit is due. When Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division had the unenviable task of creating and implementing supporting guidance, enforcing the law, and tending to all of its…