There is a new law for Tennessee employers. As of October 1, 2020, those of you with employees in Tennessee must reasonably accommodate pregnant employees under the state’s new “Pregnant Workers Fairness Act” or else face...more
11/10/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Duty to Accommodate ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
New Legislation ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
State and Local Government
Months of working from home have made at least one thing clear – the “Freshman 15” has nothing on the COVID-19. Boredom, stress, and ease of access to the refrigerator has caused many employees to trade in their suits for...more
This year has presented many challenges, including a global health pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes, and social justice unrest, and yet we now face a fast approaching influenza season that is sure to bring on more coughs,...more
10/9/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Best Practices ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Exemptions ,
Influenza ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Objections ,
OSHA ,
Vaccinations
As the country moves closer to fully opening businesses, the Department of Labor wants to remind all employers that their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act are still in place for workers with disabilities....more
8/26/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
High Risk Covid Employees ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remote Working ,
Sick Employees ,
Social Distancing ,
Telecommuting ,
Workplace Safety
In the COVID-19 era, many employers and businesses are wrestling with unprecedented issues. You can add one more to the list: Can you have your employees ask a customer who refuses to wear a mask because of a claimed...more
8/12/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Business Ownership ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Customers ,
Direct Threat Defense ,
Disabilities ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Mandatory Requirements ,
Masks ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Public Accommodation
The EEOC just amended its Q&A document on COVID-19 testing to address what COVID-19 testing employers can require. At this time (and it could change), the EEOC says that the ADA does not allow employers to require antibody...more
As states begin to ease COVID-19 restrictions and individuals start to determine their own levels of acceptable risk, employers face yet another set of issues related to getting employees back to work. After many of you...more
One of the hardest things about the COVID-19 crisis is that nobody is sure about when things will open back up and life can go back to “normal.” If you’re an employer, this likely means you have more questions than answers...more
What happens if you give an employee an accommodation that goes above and beyond what the ADA requires? Can you change your mind down the road and stop providing that accommodation? Or are you stuck providing that...more
Is everything covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? Although we all know the ADA broadly defines the conditions that are protected disabilities, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Shell v....more
Does a position that a company is holding for an employee out on FMLA leave an “open position” as contemplated by the Americans with Disabilities Act? In Maxwell v. Washington County, a Mississippi federal district court said...more
The landscape remains murky as to whether and how Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites. As the financial services industry moves increasingly and inexorably from a “bricks and mortar”...more
Obesity has been recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association, National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization. Does that mean obesity qualifies as a physical impairment under the Americans...more
What do you do when an employee discloses that he or she is stressed out and needs a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the requested accommodation strikes you as unreasonable? If you are...more
Ever wonder why the severance agreement that I (or your other favorite employment lawyer) send you says “nothing in this Agreement prevents Employee from filing a charge with the EEOC” (or words to that effect)? I mean, isn’t...more
2/7/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Retaliation ,
Section 503 ,
Section 706 ,
Severance Agreements ,
Severance Pay ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan ,
Title VII
Before everyone gets out of the office to their various homes and families to celebrate the holiday, we wanted to review the year and count our blessings. Not only are we thankful that our families and colleagues in our...more
11/22/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Leave ,
NLRB ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Sexual Assault ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Social Media Policy ,
Wage and Hour
We have said it before — the EEOC believes that leave is a reasonable accommodation and automatic termination when FMLA leave runs out violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even though at least one federal court has...more
If an employer provides a temporary reassignment to accommodate an employee’s disability/pregnancy restrictions, does it have to return her to that assignment after her maternity leave? The EEOC seems to think so. In Equal...more
Before the Americans with Disabilities Act (and there was a time before the ADA), it was not uncommon to require employees to have a doctor’s note returning them to work “with no restrictions.” That won’t work in today’s ADA...more
There has been a lot of discussion over the last year about whether transgender employees are protected against sex discrimination under Title VII—but what about against disability discrimination under the Americans with...more
If you weren’t sure what it meant to discriminate against someone because of their national origin, the EEOC wants to help. The newly revised Section 13 of the EEOC Field Manual provides guidance on how the EEOC defines...more
3/9/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Harassment ,
National Origin ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Native American Issues ,
Title VII
A deaf person applies for a job and the employee who takes applications asks you “how can a deaf person do this job?” What if an essential function of the job requires interaction with the public or the ability to communicate...more
A recent Eleventh Circuit case under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) approved Dollar General’s termination of an employee on leave. The timing of Dollar General’s decision...more
For those of you who think the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) means you have to do whatever a disabled employee wants, I bring good news from of all sources, a jury in California. This case had it all—an employee...more
11/4/2015
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
FedEx ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Medical Leave ,
Popular ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Unpaid Leave
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is 25 years old this year. I was a newly minted lawyer when this law emerged in 1990 and as I have grown, so have the number of disability discrimination lawsuits. In celebration of...more