Source: https://eeotraining.eeoc.gov
Yep, it’s that time of year.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Training Institute is hosting its Examining Conflicts in Employment Laws (EXCEL) Training Conference in Washington, DC. Continue reading
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In 2014, the National Labor Relations Board ruled here in a case called Purple Communications that employees can use company email to try to form a union. Specifically, the Board held that “employee use of email for statutorily protected communication on nonworking time must presumptively be permitted by employers who have chosen to give employees access to their email systems.”
Yeah, I like my plain English better too.
Fast forward to 2018, and of all the places in the world, a federal appellate court in California — yes California — may be the one to change this. Continue reading
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During this July 4th holiday week, I don’t expect many of you to read this blog. So, thank you to those who do stick around. And, come mid-week, I’ll set off some legal backyard fireworks in your honor.
***Updates shopping list***
And I’ll bring my A-game. B-plus, at least. For the rest of the week, you can expect nothing less from me than Russia’s performance against Spain in the World Cup.
We’re going to start off by revisiting an issue, the surface of which we began to scratch a few months ago: opioids and the workplace.
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If you’re new to the field, you’ll have to take our word on it. But, HR-compliance professionals know that drafting an employee handbook that is 100% compliant got a lot tougher over the past several years.
Let’s forget about paid-sick-leave laws, ban-the-box, and other state/local law matters. I’m just talking about how strict the National Labor Relations Board had become in interpreting employee handbook policies for union and non-union employers. (Remember that the National Labor Relations Act is not limited to unionized employers.)
Fortunately, relief is on the way. And I have nine ways in which you can now update your handbook with the blessing of the Board’s General Counsel. Continue reading
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Yesterday morning, I read my friend Jon Hyman’s post on LinkedIn about a lawsuit in which a person of color alleged that various supervisors and managers:
Allegedly, a group of white employees also hung a sign in the workplace that said, “WHITE ONLY.” Continue reading
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Well, there’s always a chance the court might, you know, enforce it.
By Photograph by Franz Jantzen, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Soberconnections [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons
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[UPDATED (12:30 PM Eastern): I made a few mistakes in the original post that I am correcting now. First, the link to the paid sick leave law was to a prior version of the law. I corrected that with an updated link. Second, employees can accrue a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, not 72 as mentioned in the original post. I have corrected that as well. I apologize for the mistakes and any confusion they may have created. I also clarified the accrual rules. Fortunately, the new law doesn’t take effect for 180 days. So, there is still time to prepare.]
On the heels of passing the strongest equal pay law in the entire nation, New Jersey has outdone itself.
California, eat your heart out. New Jersey has done it again by passing a new law requiring paid sick leave for employees. Continue reading
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I haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War yet.
So, no spoilers here.
But, I imagine that even if the good guys can combine forces to beat the comic villains, they would still lack the legal acumen to master employee benefits.
For that my friends, you need a real superhero. Continue reading
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