The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled this week that severe obesity is not a "disability" within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act unless it is caused by a physiological disorder....more
How's your employment law history knowledge?
Happy Memorial Day weekend, everybody! In honor of the occasion, see how much you remember about these old federal employment laws that we deal with every day. As always, answers...more
It's spring, and a young person's fancy turns to . . .
. . . why, the federal regulatory agenda! What else?
Here are the items that I think will be of most interest to our readers....more
Buff employers, beware!
A jury recently awarded $500 grand to a restaurant server in Las Vegas for intentional infliction of emotional distress. The server claimed that a sign calling him "Fat Andy" was posted at his wait...more
Most charges were down, but sex harassment, LGBT charges were up.
On Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its charge-filing statistics for fiscal year 2018, which ran from October 1, 2017, through...more
I love my readers!
Week before last, I published a blog post about the proposed regulations recently issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. For the most part, I thought they were unremarkable, but there...more
Happy holidays, with an employment law twist.
1-Macy’s parade Santa Claus was fired and replaced by Kris Kringle after he drank too much and got tangled up in his whip. The original Miracle on 34th Street was made in 1947,...more
A not unexpected development.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has officially rescinded its regulations on wellness incentives under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information...more
A new lawsuit filed by the EEOC is a good guide for employers on what not to do.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in New York against a group of senior care and...more
What better way to start the Labor Day weekend than with a drug test?
Er, I meant a quiz about drug testing.
Assume that the following are all situations in which drug testing is not legally mandated by some federal law,...more
And the ex-employee gets a jury trial.
A federal court denied summary judgment to an employer in a failure-to-accommodate case brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Oregon state law, and the case is chock...more
Pow! Pow! Pow!
The College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio (student body approx. 2,000), is going to have to go to trial on a triple whammy of pregnancy discrimination, failure to accommodate a disability, and violations of the...more
Here are seven things that every employer should know.
The Americans with Disabilities Act has been law since 1992, and the rules regarding medical inquiries for applicants and employees have not changed much since that...more
Here are 10 questions to help you think it through.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires, in appropriate circumstances, that employers make reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities. A common question...more
I do not think "associational discrimination" means what you think it means.
Amber Bridges, a former employee of the Magistrate's Court in the City of Indianapolis, claims she was discharged because of her association with a...more
You snooze, you lose, the court said. (In so many words.)
Remember the AARP v. EEOC case? That's the one in which the AARP challenged the regulations of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission addressing incentives for...more
And did it with such grace! After all, she is Miss Manners.
This is another installment in my unofficial series, "Second-guessing the advice columnists."
My all-time favorite advice columnist is Miss Manners, who appears...more
How much do you know about an employer’s reasonable accommodation obligations under the law(s)? Take this quiz and find out!
Question 1: Which of the following federal employment laws require reasonable accommodation, either...more
It’s not always the employee’s fault when things go bad for an employer. Sometimes the employer has no one to blame but itself. Here are six of the most common ways employers sink their own ships....more
Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Federal Bar Association about hot topics under the Americans with Disabilities Act with my blogging buddy Bill Goren, proprietor of the Understanding the ADA blog. If you...more
With President Trump in office for nine months now, it is hard to believe that none of his people are yet on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The four current Commissioners, including the Acting Chair, Republican...more
(You’ve been warned.)
As I reported Tuesday, a federal judge has ruled that the wellness regulations issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are invalid. Judge John D. Bates of the District of Columbia did not...more
Two court decisions came out last week that ought to scare the heck out of employers.
Both involved employers who seem to have been aware of their legal obligations and tried to comply. The employers lost their cases because...more
(When I think out loud, beware.)-
Ellen Kearns’ discussion of last week’s decision in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, in which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that employers may have to accommodate...more
As our readers know, discrimination against transgender individuals is often treated as sex discrimination under Title VII, as a form of unlawful “sex stereotyping.”
But is it also a “disability” within the meaning of the...more