Search
The Employer Handbook Blog
Articles Posted in Human Resources Policies
A new bill will greenlight federal employment for marijuana users
Tomorrow, I’ll be presenting “Weeding through the Haze: State and Federal Marijuana Laws and Implications” at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s 2023 EXCEL Training Conference in Washington, DC.
Between now and then, I’ll need to update my slide deck. Continue reading
Your employees’ arbitration agreements may look a lot different soon (all crumpled up in a trash can)
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) announced the introduction of the bipartisan Protecting Older Americans Act. The legislation would invalidate forced arbitration clauses that require employees to arbitrate claims of age discrimination, whether for disparate treatment, disparate impact, harassment, and retaliation. Continue reading
She said the quiet part loud and the loud part, well, not at all.
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect employee use of illegal drugs. It does not prevent employers from testing applicants or employees for current illegal drug use or making employment decisions based on verifiable results. However, the ADA would protect an employee with a disability who fails a drug test if the employer bases its termination decision on the underlying disability rather than the test result.
But here’s the thing. Continue reading
A day late and an age discrimination claim short
A 30-plus-year employee found out the hard way that missing a deadline — by just 24 hours — to arbitrate her claim against her former employer under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is enough to lose it forever when her brief delay violates the plain terms of an arbitration agreement.
Here’s how the feds will enforce pump at work protections for nursing workers
For over a decade, federal law has required most employers to provide a nursing mother with reasonable break time to express breast milk after the birth of her child for up to one year after childbirth. Last December, the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act became law. The PUMP Act provides additional workplace protections for employees who need to express breast milk, creating protections for an estimated nine million more employees.
Last week, the Wage and Hour Division published, Enforcement of Protections for Employees to Pump Breast Milk at Work, to help Department of Labor field staff enforce the law. This blog post is your movie trailer version of this latest publication.
New federal legislation will end mandatory arbitration of race discrimination claims
Last year, President Biden signed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 into law. The name of the new law speaks for itself. Victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault at work that previously signed arbitration agreements can arbitrate their claims but don’t have to.
Yesterday, multiple news outlets, including Roll Call’s Ryan Tarinelli, reported that both the House and Senate will introduce a bill soon to end the forced arbitration of race discrimination claims in the workplace. Continue reading
A CBD user drug tests positive. Do we have to excuse it? Is she actually disabled?
The EEOC has guided employers to accommodate employee use of certain prescribed medications, and excuse failed drug tests that reflect the presence of those drugs — if it is done safely — because those individuals who test positive likely have an underlying disability.
But, when employee self-medicate — like with CBDs for stress and anxiety — not only is there no duty to accommodate, the employee may not be able to establish an underlying disability. Continue reading
Today is Equal Pay Day. And here’s why, for the 14th time, the reintroduced Paycheck Fairness Act won’t pass.
In recent years, many states have passed equal pay laws.
At the federal level, well… Continue reading
Do we have to pay out accrued PTO to terminated employees?
The answer to that question (wait for it) — it depends on the state. Continue reading