Last month, President Biden publicly supported the failed unionization attempt at Amazon’s distribution center in Alabama. Yesterday, he doubled down with an Executive Order reaffirming his Administration’s policy to “encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining.”

Here are the details: Continue reading

As more states and localities legalize or decriminalize the use of recreational marijuana, the next logical step is to preclude employers from testing for marijuana use as a condition of employment.

Why? It comes does to dollars and cents. Or, perhaps, common sense. Continue reading

Oreo

Fritz Saalfeld, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

First thing’s first. Today at from 12-1 PM ET, we’ve got The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Hour: Beverages and Benefits. My partners Mark MathisBob Ellerbrock, and Amy Epstein Gluck will take a deep dive into the new U.S. Department of Labor guidance and model notices to support the new COBRA premium subsidy under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. There are a few spots left if you’re lucky, you can register for that here

Continue reading

Last week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission confirmed that new COVID-19 vaccination incentive guidance would arrive soon. While we wait patiently for its arrival, yesterday, President Biden reminded employers with fewer than 500 employees that there’s already a paid leave tax credit for employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide full pay for any time their employees need to get a COVID-19 vaccination or recover from that vaccination. Continue reading

PhotoFunia-1618877644

Image Credit: Photofunia.com

Since the EEOC last updated its “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws” resource document on December 16, 2020, it published proposed wellness rules only to walk them back less than a week later. So, several business groups wrote to the EEOC asking the big question: to what extent may employers offer employees incentives to get the COVID-19 vaccine without violating the Americans With Disabilities Act and other laws enforced by the EEOC.

It appears that we may get an answer soon. Continue reading

SENATE AND HOUSE DEMOCRATS ALONG WITH ADVOCACY GROUPS TO URGE SENATE PASSAGE OF PAYCHECK FAIRNESS AC (13563520594)

Senate Democrats, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“Equal Pay for Equal Work” has been the rallying cry in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA), which the House passed last week by a 217-210 vote.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020, women earned 82 cents for every dollar men received. So, on paper, paying men and women the same wages for the same work — “paycheck fairness” — sounds, err, fair.

So, why has the PFA never reached the President’s desk in any of the past dozen attempts going back to 1997 that it’s been introduced in Congress? Let’s find out. Continue reading

Posted in:
Updated:

Fast food

Daniel Barcelona, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Did I ever tell you guys about the wacky race discrimination case I defended involving a male fast-food franchise employee caught on video smacking a female co-worker? Continue reading

Ice cream with whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and a wafer (cropped)

Nicolas Ettlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

You (soft) served up one pun too many, Eric.

Geez! I might have blown my chance at drafting press releases for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Then again, anything is popsicle when you’re the cream of the crop.

Continue reading

“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”
Contact Information