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The Employer Handbook Blog
Even some judges mistake how easy it is for an employee to claim age discrimination
Last month, I explained how easy it is for an employee to plead a discrimination claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Yet, last night, I read an opinion in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had to correct not one but two judges on the pleadings standards. Continue reading
How did this employer terminate an employee while on FMLA without violating the law?
Employers cannot interfere with employee rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, the FMLA doesn’t exonerate employee misconduct, including when an employer discovers it during the leave. Continue reading
Don’t use THIS FONT in your legal briefs (or anywhere else probably).
This one is a bit of a total stretch. Continue reading
Is it worse to smoke a cigarette in a tanker truck carrying highly flammable substances or drive it recklessly?
A federal appellate court recently breathed new life into the discrimination claims of a tanker driver alleging that his race motivated his employer to terminate his employment for it deemed reckless driving. His evidence? His employer had treated him differently than other tanker drivers who engaged in conduct that was similar enough to his.
So, let’s explore how other employees may be similarly situated to one another in the context of a discrimination claim. Continue reading
There’s no bright-line rule or magic words needed for employees to request workplace accommodations.
See what you think of this. Continue reading
An employer that refuses to accommodate an employee’s disability can still win an ADA lawsuit. Here’s how.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for a qualified individual with a disability unless doing so will impose an undue hardship on its business. A plaintiff who claims that their employer failed to accommodate them must initially establish that they could perform the position’s essential functions and that the employer refused to provide an accommodation.
Most courts have found that an employer’s good faith attempt to accommodate is insufficient. However, those courts will not impose liability unless the plaintiff establishes an alternative reasonable accommodation. Continue reading
Here’s why the FTC thinks its non-compete rule will survive a legal challenge
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission responded to efforts by a Texas business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to convince a Texas federal judge to block the Federal Trade Commission’s final Non-compete Rule, which would impose a comprehensive ban on new non-competes with all workers, including senior executives. Continue reading
Got an age discrimination claim? It’s not that hard to plead one in court.
A plaintiff claiming age discrimination at work must ultimately prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that age was the ‘but-for’ cause of whatever adverse employment action the plaintiff claims to have suffered.
However, a recent Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision reminds us that merely pleading allegations of age discrimination is easy, like Sunday morning. Continue reading
The world’s largest HR organization does NOT support the FTC’s non-compete rule
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), with nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries (of which I am one), filed an amicus brief last week in a lawsuit pending in Texas in which it supported efforts to block the Federal Trade Commission’s final non-compete Rule. The FTC seeks to impose a comprehensive ban on new non-competes with all workers, including senior executives.