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The Employer Handbook Blog
The employee who claimed she was drugged, raped, and blackmailed by a supervisor LOST her discrimination lawsuit. HOW?!?
From recent memory, I can’t recall a case with more egregious allegations of sexual harassment. Continue reading
Let’s revisit whether morbid obesity is a disability (and why, sometimes, it may not matter).
In today’s blog post, we’re doubling up on the employment law lessons. It’s a two for Tuesday Thursday! Continue reading
Court re-orders 8 hours of religious-liberty training for an employer’s lawyers; says they need it “direly.”
Last month, following an airline’s loss in a religious bias lawsuit brought by a former employee, a Texas federal judge issued a scathing 29-page decision in which he ordered the airline to have three of its lawyers complete 8 hours of religious-liberty training each. Read this post if you want more background on the lawsuit.
Predictably, the airline appealed the lower court’s decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It also asked the sanctioning judge to stay his order requiring training. That last part didn’t go so well.
I know when you can start filing EEO-1 Component 1 Data. Here’s a hint: 🎃🍬🍫
Yes, soon after I start recycling old blog posts next month about the liability risks that employees and their poor costume choices present for employers, all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting specific criteria can start submitting demographic workforce data, including data by job category and sex and race or ethnicity, to the EEOC. Continue reading
Another employer learns the hard way that it’s better to hire slow and fire fast
A company fired one of its employees just ten days after learning about his disability. Although the proximity between the two doesn’t confirm that the employee’s disability motivated the employer’s decision, some other vital factors led a federal appellate court to overrule a lower court’s decision in favor of the employer, thus setting the stage for a jury trial on the plaintiff’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims.
I’ll explain why. Continue reading
This is not a drill. A new, federal overtime proposal will cost employers $1.2 billion.
For the first time in four years, the U.S. Department of Labor plans to increase the minimum salary level to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Act’s overtime requirements. Continue reading
What is (and is not) considered retaliation?
A director for a major transit authority applied for two internal promotions. She didn’t get either. Feeling that she was more qualified than either successful candidate, the director reported discrimination internally and later filed a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Among other things, she alleged in the EEOC Charge that, after her internal report of discrimination, she experienced retaliation. For example, she alleged that he performance review scores went down, her workload increased, and some analysts no longer reported to her.
That’s not great. But, is it what the law considers “retaliation”?
The feds are trying to make unionizing your workplace easier than draining a two-foot putt.
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC that it claims in this press release will “effectuate employees’ right to bargain through representatives of their choosing and improve the fairness and integrity of Board-conducted elections.”
That’s one way of putting it. Continue reading
I may have located the blueprint showing when regular, in-person attendance is an ADA essential job function
Earlier this month, a federal appellate court had to decide whether a hospital employee could perform her job remotely or whether the job’s essential functions required her to come to work in person.
Spoiler alert: The plaintiff lost the failure-to-accommodate claim she asserted under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But stick around because the Seventh Circuit’s thoughtful analysis may help you decide whether regular work attendance is essential for the job. Continue reading