Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
It’s tough enough dealing with employees who submit shady doctor notes to avoid masks or getting a COVID-19 vaccination. (I find that letterhead printed on a Saltine is a dead-bang giveaway.) But, what happens to the doctors that write these opt-out letters?
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Hey, they can’t all be hip hop HR posts. But, you’ll be thanking me for helping to sleuth out what appears to be a big medical and religious COVID-19 vaccination accommodation scam now percolating on the West Coast and coming soon to a city near you. Continue reading
All right! Stop whatcha doin’. ‘Cause I’m about to — school you on the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Yes, it’s another hip hop employment law lesson, this time honoring the late great Gregory Edward Jacobs a/k/a Shock G a/k/a Humpty Hump. Continue reading
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
According to Bloomberg Law, “broad liability protections that shield most or all businesses [from COVID-19 liability are in] roughly half of all states now.”
So let’s say that one of your employees is immunocompromised with an underlying disability, and she seeks an accommodation to mitigate the risk of her increased vulnerability to COVID-19. If the employers fail to accommodate, do “broad liability protections” under state law also foreclose COVID-19-related claims arising under the Americans with Disabilities or equivalent state disability-discrimination law?
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booledozer, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
On Wednesday, I posted about a $250K Arkansas federal jury verdict against an employer for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Well, you’ll never believe this! Earlier in the month, another federal jury in Wisconsin concluded that the same employer had violated the ADA. But this wasn’t any piddling $250K verdict. No, sir. The jury awarded $3,670,000 in compensatory damages and another $40,300,000 in punitive damages.
Back up the armored car! Continue reading
Jami430, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Once during mediation, a federal judge asked me if I knew which type of discrimination jurors hated the most? I thought maybe age discrimination or retaliation, which jurors could either relate to personally or through a spouse or parent.
“No,” said the federal judge. “The answer is discrimination against veterans.” Continue reading
Image by Please Don’t sell My Artwork AS IS from Pixabay
Last week, I read the news that Sha’Carri Richardson, one of the favorites to win Olympic gold for the United States in the women’s 100-meter dash, was suspended for a month for testing positive for marijuana. As a management-side employment lawyer, I’ll admit that my initial reaction was that she broke the rules and deserved the discipline associated with the infraction.
Then, I thought to myself, that is a really dumb rule. Continue reading
MikeRun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
I really wanted to use the Spiderman meme here. But to avoid any potential copyright issues, please accept this cheaply executed facsimile — not in counterparts — instead. And here is some music to hammer the point home. Continue reading
Image by fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay
In anticipation of the triumphant return of The Employer Handbook Zoom Officer Hour on Friday, June 25 at Noon Eastern, when we’ll focus on answering all of your COVID-19 return to work questions, it struck me that one of the big issues is COVID-19 itself. Specifically, is COVID-19 a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act?
If you haven’t done so already, go ahead and register here for this free event. And below, I’ll provide a sneak preview of how one court resolved whether COVID-19 is an ADA disability.
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