Accommodate, accommodate, accommodate!
I started practicing law two years before Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), and four years before it took effect (1992 for larger employers, 1994 for smaller...more
7/18/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Documentation ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Forced Leave of Absences ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Wage and Hour
TL;DR: Some big changes.
On Tuesday, the Trump Administration nominated Brittany Bull Panuccio to the spot on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that has been vacant since Keith Sonderling’s term expired last...more
5/9/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Quorum ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Title IX ,
Trump Administration
And My Pillow may not get a soft landing.
I've had artificial intelligence on the brain (get it?) this week, after seeing a recent high profile incident involving the lawyers for Mike Lindell, founder of My Pillow....more
5/2/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Defamation ,
Judges ,
Jurisdiction ,
Legal Ethics ,
Legal Technology ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Software ,
Technology ,
Trial Preparation ,
Young Lawyers
At least one court says yes.
True confession: When I was a little future lawyer, I was sometimes a pain. (So, Robin, you’re saying your personality hasn't changed in all these years?) When I was being especially “high...more
4/17/2025
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employees ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Performance Reviews ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Tenure ,
Title VII ,
Universities
Interesting decision this week from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A high school math teacher (we’ll call her “Ms. Plantagenet”) had post-traumatic stress disorder. Years earlier, her...more
3/28/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Litigation ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Teachers ,
Undue Hardship
Employer going to trial in age discrimination case. We had a blizzard last Friday (in North Carolina, 2 inches is a blizzard), and we still have ice and snow on the ground a week later.
Anyway, I've had enough of winter now...more
1/22/2025
/ Age Discrimination ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Documentation ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Performance Reviews ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
Mayday! Mayday! Lately I’ve written about some court decisions that were good for employers. (See here and here.) The reason the outcomes were good is that the employers did the right things before their cases even got to...more
You can't make this stuff up.
I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving.
A federal judge just down the road from me ruled this week that a woman’s retaliation case should go to a jury, even though her sexual harassment...more
Don't be this employer. (Allegedly.) Not long ago, I posted about an employer who won summary judgment in an FMLA case and noted five things that the employer did right, which helped it win. Sad to say, a decision came out...more
How'd that happen? An employer who terminated an employee after he took intermittent FMLA leave for diabetes won its case, and recently won again on appeal. According to both courts, the employee appeared to be trying to...more
9/20/2024
/ Clearance ,
Commercial Driving Licenses ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Family Medical Leave ,
FMCSA ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Interference Claims ,
Intermittent Leave ,
Medical Certification Requests ,
Performance Reviews ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour
If you follow these, you should be in great shape. Reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act continues to flummox many employers. But it shouldn’t be that hard, at least not in most cases. Here are...more
8/16/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Wage and Hour
Employers, take warning! A federal judge in Illinois refused this week to dismiss a class action lawsuit brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act based on a "voluntary" wellness program.
Employers should review...more
At least one judge thinks so. A federal judge in Lubbock, Texas, has permanently enjoined the federal government from enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act against the State of Texas and its agencies and divisions....more
3/1/2024
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Quorum ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
Standing ,
Texas
Expect to see more of this.
A judge in Connecticut recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by a 26-year employee who developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease. According to the court's opinion, the employee had performed well...more
It's worth a read. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently released a proposed Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, and it's quite good. Don't let the length intimidate you. If you aren't an...more
10/6/2023
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Comment Period ,
Complaint Procedures ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corrective Actions ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
LGBTQ ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Expression ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Transgender ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
Two recent court decisions shed some light.
Two decisions in reverse discrimination cases came down this week from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In one case, a three-judge panel found in favor of the...more
There was this disability discrimination issue . . .
An employer who shall remain nameless had a tradition of throwing a little birthday party for each of its employees on their special day.
The birthday of one employee...more
4/22/2022
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Social Anxiety Disorder ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Violence
Just before the Memorial Day holiday, we had a “breaking news” bulletin about the revised guidance published Friday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about employers’ and employees’ rights when it came to...more
6/3/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Confidential Information ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
GINA ,
Guidance Update ,
Health Care Providers ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Incentives ,
Personnel Records ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations
This information could come in handy for employers.
The National Labor Relations Board has made public three Advice letters dealing with the two hottest topics of our times: Political activism, and COVID-19. In each case, a...more
9/18/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Duty to Bargain ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Political Expression ,
Right to Peaceful Assembly ,
State Labor Laws ,
Title VII ,
UFCW ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
And, remember those wellness regulations? New ones are in progress.
Yesterday the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its FAQs on coronavirus and discrimination. For those who are already familiar with the...more
The Department of Labor has issued new FAQs.
As most of you know, the U.S. Department of Labor has an ever-growing list of FAQs related to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The latest FAQs include guidance related...more
Yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor published three pieces of guidance on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act provisions relating to expanded leave under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act and...more
(Not a political endorsement.)
As you know, this blog is non-partisan, even if it kills us. But I couldn't help feeling sorry for Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday night when his fellow Democratic presidential candidates piled...more
Two courts have said yes, but one now says no.
In 2017, I wrote about a federal court decision saying that gender dysphoria was a "disability" within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A year later, another...more
Didn't get your data in yesterday? You get a break.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that it will continue accepting "Category 2" EEO-1 compensation data for the foreseeable future....more