Can you still have noncompete agreements with your employees? What if you explicitly state that the agreement protects trade secrets or other proprietary information? There has been a lot of buzz about this issue, and...more
6/15/2023
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Proprietary Information ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 7 ,
Section 8 ,
Trade Secrets
No-fault attendance policies may be on a watchlist for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
A recent matter before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, EEOC v. Eberspaecher North America Inc.,...more
Many workplaces allow their employees to listen to music or radio on site. But what if employees choose to blast “sexually graphic” and “violently misogynistic” songs throughout a warehouse? Does it matter whether the...more
Tracking intermittent FMLA time — it’s every HR professional’s favorite thing to do. Do you come up with a total number of hours per employee or just count portions of the workweek? What do you do if an employee takes...more
Can you still have noncompete agreements with your employees? There has been a lot of buzz about this issue, and this week the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board joined the conversation with a memorandum,...more
Your employee requests a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) but you refuse to grant it. If the employee continues to perform their job, can the employee still sue you for refusing the...more
5/31/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Compensation ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability ,
Employee Training ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interpreters ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reversal
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the best way to save time and make fair decisions — right? Not so fast. As AI is more common in our day-to-day lives, we have seen it make mistakes and replicate human shortcomings. For many it...more
5/26/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Automated Decision Systems (ADS) ,
Bots ,
Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interviews ,
Job Applicants ,
Municipalities ,
State and Local Government ,
Technology Sector ,
Title VII
All employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) must post an updated version of the FLSA “Employee Rights” poster to remain compliant with the law....more
5/18/2023
/ Breastfeeding ,
Covered Employer ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Wage ,
Over-Time ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Wage and Hour
Do you have a “no fault” attendance policy or some other way in which employees get points for absences? If so, be careful. A recent Eleventh Circuit matter, EEOC v. Eberspaecher North America, Inc. suggests that the Equal...more
Can you require your workers to arbitrate claims? What if they work in interstate commerce? Recently several courts have addressed the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and when it applies to arbitration agreements...more
If the NLRB finds that you have committed an unfair labor practice (and maybe more than once), just what can it do? In Noah’s Ark Processors, a three-member panel of the board recently took an opportunity to pronounce...more
Can someone who has no intention of using your services or buying your products sue you because your website is not accessible? In Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on whether...more
Mass shootings have been increasingly in the headlines in recent years, and many of these incidents have occurred in the workplace. Regardless of anyone’s politics, employers are having to face either the fear of, or the...more
4/13/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employee Training ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hostile Environment ,
Mass Shootings ,
Risk Management ,
Workplace Communication ,
Workplace Safety ,
Workplace Violence
You may recall that the Pregnant Works Fairness Act (PWFA) is modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act and we blogged about the coming changes here. Given that the effective date is June 27, we’re back with an update...more
4/11/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Breastfeeding ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
New Legislation ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Title VII
Can you have an employment policy that is clearly based on gender? What if it doesn’t affect an “ultimate employment decision,” such as hiring, firing, promoting, granting leave or compensation? Last year, we told you about a...more
Can you have a no pets at work policy? What if an employee has a service dog? What if it is an emotional support dog? As with all things legal (and ADA), it depends, and you should give some thought and engage in an...more
If you take on a federal contract, does that make you a state actor? No, according to a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker Company.
During World War II, the Army included Smucker’s apple butter in its...more
3/21/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Class Action ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
First Amendment ,
Free Exercise Clause ,
GINA ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Smuckers ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations
The United States Department of Labor recently issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2023-1 (FAB), which provides guidance to agency officials on a number of telework issues. The FAB addresses (1) paying workers who telework...more
On February 28, the White House issued a memorandum giving federal employees 30 days to remove the TikTok application from any government devices. This memo is the result of an act passed by Congress that requires the removal...more
3/2/2023
/ Data Collection ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Information Governance ,
Information Technology ,
Mobile Devices ,
National Security ,
Regulatory Mandates ,
Removal ,
TikTok
In a highly anticipated ruling under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the U.S. Supreme Court in Helix Energy Solutions v. Hewitt held that an employee did not qualify for the highly paid exemption from the FLSA’s overtime pay...more
Employers sometimes face difficult decisions after learning of an employee’s disability. What if you learn of a disability after ongoing repeated employment deficiencies or even after a disciplinary or discharge decision...more
2/21/2023
/ Absenteeism ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Failure to Notify ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Termination
Most of us know that when an employee or visitor to a place of public accommodation requests a reasonable accommodation, the ADA requires an interactive process to make an individualized determination. But what about a...more
2/16/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dog-Friendly Workplace ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Nursing Homes ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Service Animals
Do you have to pay an employee on military leave? Generally, you only have to pay for military leave if you pay employees on “comparable” leaves. So what is a comparable leave? In Clarkson v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., the Ninth...more
2/15/2023
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Military Leave ,
Military Service Members ,
USERRA ,
Wage and Hour
If an employer hires undocumented workers, are they covered under the U.S. employment laws? Initially, employers must complete Form I-9s for all new employees and cannot hire workers who are unable to establish that they’re...more
2/2/2023
/ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Deportation ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Form I-9 ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Labor Regulations ,
New Guidance ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Title VII ,
Undocumented Immigrants
Is your employee handbook a binding contract? A recent case from the Alabama Supreme Court, Davis v. City of Montevallo, says sometimes it is. Many employers issue handbooks to set forth guidelines for what employers expect...more