On May 28, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 “Technical Assistance Questions and Answers” for employers to provide additional guidance on vaccination policies. While the update does not...more
Last week, a client asked a timely and interesting question. The employer asked whether it can begin charging higher group health insurance premiums to employees who have declined the COVID-19 vaccination....more
If disabled employees are no longer able to perform the essential functions of their job even with reasonable accommodation, under the Americans with Disabilities Act the employer must consider transferring the workers to an...more
5/7/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability ,
Dismissals ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Essential Functions ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remand ,
Reversal
As more businesses move toward ending remote working arrangements, we have had a number of questions from clients with regard to employee requests to continue working from home for medical reasons. The employees cite a...more
Title VII requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to allow employees to work in ways compatible with their religious beliefs and practices. However, for decades, federal courts have interpreted this obligation...more
The above question may be the most frequent one we have encountered from employers in the past several weeks. As more COVID-19 vaccines become available, employers are increasingly curious about the number of their employees...more
In 2012, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released an enforcement guidance document cautioning employers on the use of criminal background checks in hiring. The EEOC advised employers that blanket use of...more
In the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 Barnett decision, the court held that qualified disabled employees are entitled to reassignment to an existing vacant position under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they become unable...more
Retaliation claims now constitute the most frequently cited basis for charges filed before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lawsuits based on retaliation can be especially dangerous for employers because they do...more
Under federal civil rights laws, if the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds reasonable cause to believe that a charging party has been discriminated against, it must enter into settlement discussions before...more
Over the course of 2020, numerous large, publicly traded corporations have come under scrutiny and criticism for their lack of diversity among senior management. As a result, some of these companies have announced their...more
Last week, North Carolina entered into phase three of its COVID-19 reopening process. As more businesses try to resume normal operations, a number of clients have asked about employees who express continuing concerns over...more
According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, Black men in the U.S. are more likely to be arrested and have criminal convictions on their records than their white counterparts. Last week, a split Second Circuit Court of...more
9/28/2020
/ Appeals ,
Conditional Job Offers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Records ,
Dismissals ,
Disparate Treatment ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Race Discrimination
In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, it may be easy for employers to forget about the earlier crisis involving opioid addiction in the U.S. Companies continue to struggle with employees who face opioid addiction...more
Federal civil rights laws prevent retaliation against employees who oppose discriminatory conduct in the workplace. What happens, however, when the employee’s oppositional conduct interferes with the performance of her job...more
Over the past week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has added to its ongoing COVID-19 technical guidance document, answering a number of questions relating to employee return-to-work plans. Most importantly, the...more
As employers begin formulating return-to-work plans, one step under consideration is workplace testing of employees for COVID-19. While such tests are not widely available yet, these plans have raised questions regarding...more
As federal and state governments begin planning return-to-work scenarios, on April 17, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued revisions to its COVID-19 pandemic questions and answers guidance. Among other things,...more
Last Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an expanded technical assistance Q&A on employment discrimination concerns associated with employers’ COVID-19 response efforts. The advisory does not make...more
Employers that are already perplexed by the long time it takes the EEOC to complete investigations will now have even longer to wait for the conclusion of discrimination charges. Earlier this week, the EEOC announced that due...more
In 2009 in response to the H1N1 outbreak, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a publication titled Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act. On March 21, the EEOC updated...more
In recent years, federal courts have increasingly split over whether obesity in and of itself is a qualifying medical condition under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The EEOC and some courts have concluded that obesity...more
In 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against a trucking company, alleging a pattern and practice of sexual harassment affecting a class of 270 female employees. The district court dismissed the...more
In its decision last term in Epic Systems Corp. V. Lewis, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the National Labor Relations Act does not preclude the use of mandatory arbitration agreements in employment which prevent class...more
12/11/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
If asked to describe the essential functions of a given job, most employers would include actually showing up to work as a critical component. In recent years the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken the position...more