If an employee complains about a sexually suggestive picture circulating in the workplace that looks like her but is not, is that a hostile work environment complaint? It might be. In Lillian Carranza v. City of Los Angeles,...more
7/31/2025
/ Appeals ,
California ,
City of Los Angeles ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Damages ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hostile Environment ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
While artificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool in a manager’s arsenal when it comes to efficiently making decisions, it is essential to use it ethically and fairly. Companies are no longer relying on AI solely to...more
7/24/2025
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Best Practices ,
Bias ,
Bots ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Technology
Maybe you are one of the lucky employers who has not been sued in court or received a charge filed with a federal or state agency enforcing employment laws, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the...more
The call or visit that no employer wants to receive: a Department of Labor representative asking to look at your payroll records. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) gives the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division...more
7/3/2025
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Guidance ,
Over-Time ,
Settlement ,
Wage and Hour
If a qualified job candidate asks to reschedule a second-round interview due to severe menstrual cramps associated with endometriosis, is that a request for an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act? If you...more
6/18/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Healthcare ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Settlement ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Title VII
Earlier this month, in Strife v. Aldine Independent School District, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employer’s delayed accommodation of an employee’s disability could amount to a failure to accommodate under...more
5/28/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Litigation ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
School Districts
As everyone in Human Resources knows by now, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees because of pregnancy and conditions related to pregnancy. In case you missed it, we...more
5/8/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Compliance ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation
Can you compel arbitration with an employee who is alleging sexual harassment? You may recall that in 2022, Congress enacted the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), which precludes...more
4/25/2025
/ #MeToo ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Statutory Interpretation
Even just a few years ago, the concept of using artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life was a novel, if somewhat intimidating, concept. But from Google’s AI overview to Microsoft’s Copilot, many of us use AI daily to...more
4/17/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Hiring & Firing ,
New Legislation ,
Proposed Legislation ,
State Labor Laws ,
Technology
This week President Donald Trump nominated attorney Jonathan Berry to be the next solicitor of the Department of Labor (DOL). Berry worked in the department during the first Trump administration, and he was the sole author of...more
4/4/2025
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Over-Time ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour
In Title VII actions, plaintiffs have a limited amount of time to file a charge of discrimination (or a court can dismiss the case as untimely). In the case of Wells v. Texas Tech University, the timeliness dynamic was...more
3/11/2025
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title VII
As the mainstream media has reported, President Trump is firing everyone he can (and maybe some he can’t) at the National Labor Relations Board. On day one, the president fired the NLRB’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, a...more
2/25/2025
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions
President Donald Trump’s “Return to In-Person Work” executive order (EO) mandates that federal employees return to full-time office work. This EO effectively ended the widespread hybrid and remote work arrangements that had...more
2/12/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Labor Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Trump Administration
Can you still have DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs? How about affirmative action plans? The Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard garnered national attention in holding...more
2/6/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Protection ,
Executive Orders ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
State Attorneys General ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Trump Administration
At some point, every employer will need to investigate an employee’s complaint. An investigation is an important tool that employers can use to fix a workplace problem and minimize liability. Or, an investigation can create...more
1/31/2025
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Investigations ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance ,
Workplace Safety
What does the EEOC have to do with smart watches, rings, glasses, helmets and other devices that track bodily movement and other data? These devices, known as “wearables,” can track location, brain activity, heart rate, and...more
1/21/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Smart Devices ,
Technology Sector ,
Title VII ,
Tracking Systems
When did you last look at your employee leave policies? As the calendar turns to a new year, new changes often arrive, and 2025 is no exception. Employers should take note of the recent updates to state leave laws that went...more
1/16/2025
/ Compliance ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Labor Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws
The federal Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act (the WARN Act), generally requires that employers give workers 60 days’ written notice of any plant closings or mass layoffs. If employers do not comply with this...more
1/8/2025
/ Back Pay ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Compliance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Layoffs ,
Notice Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Unions ,
WARN Act
Did you know that you can request files from OSHA? Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), employers, employees, and third parties have the right to request documents from OSHA’s inspection files. These records provide...more
1/8/2025
/ Appeals ,
Compliance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Document Requests ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FOIA ,
Inspection Rights ,
OSHA ,
Public Records ,
Third-Party ,
Workplace Safety
Just what does an OSHA citation have to include? Section 9(a) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires that citations “describe with particularity the nature of the violation, including a reference to the provision...more
The changing landscape of the cannabis industry is keeping employers on their toes nationwide. As more and more states expand the legalization of cannabis products, we are also seeing a trend in the cannabis statutes for...more
12/17/2024
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Cannabis Products ,
Drug Testing ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Private Right of Action ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws
With each new presidential administration, prognosticators attempt to forecast coming enforcement priorities. President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House is no exception, and theories abound regarding the manner...more
12/12/2024
/ Compliance ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trump Administration ,
Undocumented Immigrants ,
USCIS
Harassment prevention is still a top priority for federal agencies (which means it should be a priority for all employers). Last spring, we blogged about the EEOC’s guidance on this issue, and now the OFCCP has issued its own...more
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, now is the perfect time to reflect on things for which we have to be thankful. In the ever-evolving world of labor and employment law, there have been several significant...more
11/27/2024
/ Chevron Deference ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Minimum Salary ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Unions
By now, everyone has heard about the Texas court putting the kibosh on the new salary exempt thresholds. In other exemption classification news, the United States Supreme Court is set to issue an opinion in early 2025...more
11/20/2024
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Exemptions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Salary ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Wage and Hour