The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from requiring employee medical examinations absent business necessity. The ADA provides a back pay remedy for violations, but limits these damages to discrimination on...more
4/4/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Back Pay ,
Damages ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Medical Examinations
In recent years, a number of colleges and universities have added caste to their list of prohibited classifications under their anti-discrimination policies. Two Hindu professors at a public California university filed suit,...more
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined review of a First Circuit Court of Appeals decision rejecting a facial challenge to the way the Department of Labor and federal courts determine exempt versus non-exempt duties under...more
Since 1973, federal courts reviewing claims of employment discrimination have used a framework first established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s McDonnell Douglas decision. Under this framework, plaintiffs must show a prima facie...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from asking most applicants questions about their medical history before a conditional offer of employment is made....more
Last week, an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by red state attorneys general challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s inclusion of abortion among...more
Last year in a rare victory for the Department of Labor, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by a Dairy Queen franchisee that the Fair Labor Standards Act prohibits DOL from establishing any minimum salary for...more
2/21/2025
/ Appeals ,
Chevron Deference ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Franchises ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
When considering whether to place employees under post-employment restrictive covenants, employers often consider including customer non-solicitation provisions in addition to or as an alternative to the traditional...more
For most non-exempt employees, the Fair Labor Standards Act considers time spent traveling during the working day to be compensable working time. Last week, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals applied this principle to travel...more
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could have significant impacts on employee retiree medical insurance plans. In Stanley v. City of Sanford, a retired city employee alleges that Sanford’s...more
When reviewing an employee’s request for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers sometimes develop tunnel vision when deciding whether the claimed medical condition constitutes a protected ADA...more
1/17/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appellate Courts ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Mental Health ,
PTSD ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers established internal procedures to evaluate employees' requests for religious and medical-based exemptions from vaccination mandates. ...more
1/10/2025
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Title VII
The Family and Medical Leave Act provides unpaid job-protected leave for a qualified employee to care for a spouse, parent, or child with a serious health condition. This means that FMLA protections do not extend to employee...more
12/20/2024
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
In Loco Parentis ,
Parental Responsibilities ,
Special Needs Adults ,
Wrongful Termination
Lawsuits challenging employers' authority to require measures intended to prevent COVID-19 infections continue to wend their way through the federal judiciary. Last month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim...more
12/6/2024
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Beliefs ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
The Fair Labor Standards Act contains complex rules for determining whether non-exempt employee travel is compensable working time. In most circumstances, time spent commuting to and from work is not considered FLSA working...more
Following a "cause" finding in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge of discrimination investigation, the agency issues a right to sue letter to the charging party or agrees to sue the employer on that person’s...more
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition requesting review of a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia) decision that set a low bar for plaintiffs to plead...more
Federal courts are facing an increasing number of lawsuits from employees claiming that their rights were violated when they were required to attend diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training. These suits have used...more
The Family and Medical Leave Act does not require employers to allow qualified employees to work remotely. While such requests may fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act’s reasonable accommodation obligation, the FMLA...more
We previously reported a growing number of questions from employers involving employees who have tested positive for marijuana and who claimed the positive test resulted from their use of legal CBD products. Last week, the...more
Last month, we reported on a decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes Tennessee) concluding that an employee’s asthma did not constitute a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities...more
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a number of federal court decisions involving disability discrimination claims from teachers who requested full-time remote work as an accommodation for compromised immune systems or other...more
In 2008, Congress amended the Americans with Disabilities Act to expand the definition of medical conditions that qualify for protections under that statute. The amendments resulted from a number of federal court decisions...more
North Carolina is an at-will employment state, but recognizes a limited exception from that rule for terminations that violate the state’s public policy. Courts have wrestled for years over the meaning of public policy and...more
A significant number of employers are opting to elect mandatory arbitration of potential disputes with employees as an alternative to state or federal courts. In some circumstances, arbitration can be quicker than litigation,...more