The Employer Handbook Blog

Religious accommodation required for an employee’s veganism? Maybe.

January 4, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

“Well, blow me down. Wimpy inspires a UK fast food chain,
and all I get is this crappy can. Why I oughta…“

In anticipation of the current flu season, you decided to mandate that all employees get immunized. The problem is that one of your employees, a vegan, who won’t ingest any animal or animal by-products — especially not the microwaveable scrapple-wrapped tripe pops I keep in the lunchroom freezer — refuses to get a flu shot because it’s against her religious and philosophical beliefs.

What’s her religion, you ask? Why veganism, of course.

The Employer Handbook turns 2; and the NLRB keeps hatin’ on employers

January 3, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Whatcha get the blog for its birthday? Was it an iTunes subscription to Season One of Amish Mafia?

Don’t judge the blog. The blog doesn’t like to be judged.

After the jump, the selfless blog got you a recap of seven recent National Labor Relations Board decisions affecting your workplace…

* * *

With employers like THIS, it’s gonna be a busy 2013 for the lawyers.

January 2, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Same s**t; different year.

In 2010, an Ohio temp agency paid $650K as part of a Consent Agreement with the EEOC to settle claims that it had used code words in considering and assigning (or declining) job applicants. The code include words such as “chocolate cupcake” for young African American women, “hockey player” for young white males, “figure skater” for white females, “basketball player” for black males, and “small hands” for women in general.

Fast forward…

Michigan is now the fourth state to protect employee online privacy

December 31, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

The newest right-to-work state is also the latest to ban companies from accessing password-protected social media accounts.

On Friday, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed House Bill 5523, prohibiting employers and educational institutions from asking applicants, employees and students for passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Here’s the skinny.

My 5 best posts of 2012, as selected by the world’s best readers*

December 28, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

*Do I need a disclaimer? Do I?

What a year for The Employer Handbook in 2012! I’m most pleased that, in our second year of existence, readership more than doubled. Although, sadly, the one 2011 reader I had from Papua New Guinea never returned in 2012. I hope she is ok. Yeah, she’s ok.

So, what did my readers enjoy most in 2012? Well, apparently, y’all like Polka music. Why else would this be the most-clicked item on The Employer Handbook? What a ~~strange~~ cultured bunch!

It’s legal to fire a female employee because of her “irresistible attraction”

December 27, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Cue music.

Last week, a unanimous Iowa Supreme Court held (here) that it was ok for a male boss to fire a female employee — a model employee — out of concern that he would eventually succumb and do things with her that could jeopardize his marriage.

That has to be gender discrimination!

Federal employee receives a 5-page written warning for . . . farting?!?

December 26, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

The Employer Handbook generally likes to end the year on a classy, high note. Consequently….

The Smoking Gun reports here that, earlier this month, the Social Security Administration issued this 5-page formal reprimand to an employee for his “awful and unpleasant” flatulence.

{As opposed to my ambrosial flatulence. So lovely.}

6 EEOC priorities over the next 4 years and the impact on your business

December 21, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Thumbnail image for eeoclogo.png

Thus far, you’ve managed to keep your equal-employment-opportunity nose clean. Good for you. In fact, with the economy the way it is, combined with the dwindling resources available to our federal agencies — including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — your odds of facing a federal investigation based on a complaint of discrimination or harassment are fairly slim.

But…

On Tuesday, the EEOC announced its Strategic Enforcement Plan. And within that plan, you’ll find six areas of EEOC focus over the next four years:

Swine flu as an ADA disability? What would Ozzy and Sharon say?

December 20, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

“Oy, Sharon! Will you help me out here?”

“Come on, Ozzy! Yellow in the front, brown in —.”

“Bloody hell, Sharon! I’m trying to comprehend this federal court decision from the District of Minnesota.”

Pay it forward: HR and Employment-law style

December 19, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Mark Toth and ManpowerGroups’s The Employment Blawg is hosting this month’s Employment Law Blog Carnival: Special Holiday Edition, a collection of 18 blog posts from some of the best employment lawyers on the interwebz. Got questions? They have answers. So be sure to check that out. That’s my gift (regifted, I suppose) to you.

Now the pay-it-forward part.

Daniel Schwartz at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog has a series of posts (here, here, and here) on the Newtown shooting tragedy. If any of my readers would like to help out with the relief efforts in CT, Dan has several links in his most recent Newtown post.