Part of our standard advice to nearly every client is "document, document, document." Typically, robust and timely documentation ensures that an employer has strong evidence of its legitimate rationale for making employment...more
1/24/2025
/ Best Practices ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Record Retention ,
Retaliation ,
Title VII
With the election quickly approaching, we are already receiving questions from employers involving concerns over arguments and disruptions in the workplace resulting from political disagreements. We hoped that the contentious...more
On April 29, 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new enforcement guidance on harassment in the workplace. The guidance is the result of approximately seven years of effort and replaces...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday, April 23, issued its final rule that prevents most employers from enforcing noncompetes against workers. The 3-2 vote by commissioners comes nearly a year and a half after the...more
As we have previously covered in EmployNews, in June 2023, the general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released a memo arguing that most noncompete agreements violate Section 7 of the National Labor...more
3/8/2024
/ Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Memorandum of Guidance ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proprietary Information ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 7
On January 9, the U.S. Department of Labor released its final rule on classifying workers as employees or independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act. ...more
In February 2021, we wrote about Kinzer, et al. v. Whole Foods Market, Inc., a case pending in Massachusetts federal court in which multiple employees alleged that they had been terminated by Whole Foods for wearing Black...more
1/30/2023
/ Black Lives Matter ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dress Codes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Masks ,
Retaliation ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
Whole Foods ,
Workplace Attire
On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted review of a case that may have significant repercussions for employers faced with religious accommodation requests. The case was brought by Gerald Groff, who sued the U.S. Postal...more
Under Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers are prohibited from taking adverse action against an employee because the employee has engaged in protected activity under the statute, such as filing a...more
9/17/2021
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
But For Causation ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Interpretive Rule ,
OSHA ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
Workplace Safety
As we have covered previously in EmployNews, organizations that mandate that their employees obtain vaccination against COVID-19 must consider whether employees may be entitled to an exemption due to a qualifying disability...more
By virtue of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status. On June 15,...more
7/16/2021
/ Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Hostile Environment ,
New Guidance ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
On June 8, 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing a record 9.3 million current job openings, and that a record number of employees are voluntarily resigning from their jobs. In the face of this...more
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act generally requires employers of more than 100 total employees to provide at least 60 days’ advance notice if they are terminating at least 50 employees or...more
On January 7, the U.S. Department of Labor published a new final rule adopting a five-factor test for determining whether a worker qualifies as an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The rule is set to...more
On November 1, a federal court in New York dismissed a lawsuit filed by several Amazon workers that largely sought to compel the company to comply with public health guidance. The case, Palmer v. Amazon.com Inc., was notable...more
11/20/2020
/ Amazon ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
OSHA ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Public Nuisance ,
State Health Departments ,
State Labor Laws ,
Workplace Safety
The current surge of COVID-19 across the U.S., pandemic fatigue, and the upcoming holidays are putting employers in a difficult position. Some are already receiving complaints about workers not wearing masks nor taking other...more
As we near Election Day, employers are again faced with the thorny challenges posed by political expression at work. When adopting policies to address political speech in the workplace, employers must be mindful of a...more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an update to its running guidance titled “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.” The updates address...more
The U.S. Department of Labor is still working to finalize the withdrawal of the 80/20 rule, which had forced employers to pay the full minimum wage to employees who spend more than 20 percent of their time on non-tipped work....more
2/10/2020
/ Class Action ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Franchises ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Minimum Wage ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
NPRM ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Tip Credit ,
Tipped Employees ,
Wage and Hour
Today social media platforms, including Facebook and LinkedIn, allow employers to target their job listings based on various characteristics of the users they wish to reach. As a result, employers can theoretically identify...more
1/3/2020
/ ADEA ,
Amazon ,
Class Action ,
Communication Workers of America ,
Cox Communications ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Facebook ,
Federal Rules of Evidence ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Government Investigations ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Job Ads ,
LinkedIn ,
Online Advertisements ,
Risk Management ,
Social Networks ,
T-Mobile ,
Title VII