Following rapid depletion of funds available to small businesses under the CARES Act and subsequent Congressional action to refill the well, the Treasury Department today vowed to conduct “full audits” of companies receiving...more
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that closed hundreds of thousands of business around the country is unprecedented. Fortunately, many retailers were able to maintain a fairly high level of continuity as essential businesses...more
4/24/2020
/ Attendance ,
Business Closures ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Health and Safety ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Poor Job Performance ,
Public Health ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retailers ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
Many sectors of the retail industry are critical to the nation’s efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19. After all, retailers that sell necessities such as food, medication, personal care products, and household supplies...more
The retail setting is a particularly difficult one in which to make accommodations. This is because retail employees engage in a host of different duties that require all manner of physical activities. Those who are...more
1/8/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Essential Functions ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Descriptions ,
Job Duties ,
Popular ,
Reasonable Accommodation
Perhaps no industry in history has been targeted for its basic employment requirements like the retail industry has been targeted over scheduling practices. The philosophy behind the rise of these ordinances is that having a...more
In most workplaces across the country, a perfect attendance record will be met with applause. Employees who “tough it out” and sneeze their way through the workday are congratulated, while those who stay at home to nurse an...more
10/4/2019
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Immunization Records ,
Influenza ,
OSHA ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Retailers ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sick Leave ,
Vaccinations
During the Obama administration, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rocked the HR world for employers, both union and non-union, by interpreting federal law to create broad restrictions on employer work rules, social...more
If the Department of Labor has anything to say about it, employers may soon get a bit of a reprieve when it comes to dealing with the administrative and compliance difficulties associated with the Family and Medical Leave...more
The story of two African-American men arrested for trespassing at a Starbucks while waiting for a friend made national headlines this summer. But the incident did not surprise many African Americans. “Shopping while black” is...more
Most retailers have by now faced a Title III lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) contending that a store is not accessible to disabled individuals. There remains a plethora of attorneys who make a living...more
In our last issue, we looked at some ideas about how to investigate, catch, and terminate employees who are stealing from your company. In this conclusion, we’ll talk about some ways to avoid—or at least reduce the...more
There’s good news for retailers: you are getting better at preventing shrink from employees. In 2005, a University of Florida study found that employee theft accounted for 47 percent of shrink. In a follow-up study in 2016,...more
4/6/2018
/ Business Assets ,
Defamation ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Investigations ,
Privacy Policy ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Retailers ,
Theft ,
Witness Statements ,
Work Suspensions ,
Wrongful Termination
Numerous individuals who work in retail stores are actually employed by a company other than the retailer itself. These include vendor employees stocking product, sampling employees who offer customers tasty treats, inventory...more
1/4/2018
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Terms ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Frivolous Lawsuits ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Indemnification ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Retail Market ,
Retailers ,
Title VII ,
Vendors ,
Wage and Hour
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes each month in 2017. August was no...more
9/9/2017
/ Affirmative Action ,
Appeals ,
Audio Recording ,
Class Action ,
Classification ,
College Admissions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Breach ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gig Economy ,
Green Cards ,
Hardship Distributions ,
Hurricane Harvey ,
Identity Theft ,
Independent Contractors ,
NLRB ,
On-Demand Services ,
Online Platforms ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Data ,
Popular ,
Standing ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
Vetting ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wellness Programs
This list of frequently asked questions was originally prepared by the law firm of Fisher Phillips in 2005, in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. It has been updated several times over the course of the past 12...more
9/8/2017
/ COBRA ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Disaster Preparedness ,
Donations ,
Emergency Response ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Form I-9 ,
Hardship Distributions ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hurricane Harvey ,
Hurricane Irma ,
Hurricane Season ,
Labor Relations ,
Military Leave ,
Natural Disasters ,
Plant Closures ,
Popular ,
Retirement Plan ,
Severe Weather ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
Wage and Hour ,
WARN Act ,
Workers' Compensation Claim ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Safety
No new hire has ever been accused of enjoying the time spent filling out the myriad forms they must execute at the outset of their employment. Likewise, it would be a curious manager who listed “helping new hires with...more
When the U.S. Supreme Court issued a March 2015 decision creating a new standard for how employers should accommodate pregnant employees, retailers took notice. After all, approximately 50% of retail employees are female, and...more
The retail industry, due to the seasonal nature of its business, has often bolstered its workforces with temporary employees through employment agencies. This arrangement works as an efficient way for employers to manage the...more
Recent workplace violence incidents have driven some employers to take steps to minimize the risk of criminal behavior at their locations. Whether it is beefing up physical security measures on premises, installing...more
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its annual report on productivity and costs for the retail trade industry, and there’s good news and bad news for retailers. The good news is that, for 2014, productivity in...more
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court held that retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch committed religious discrimination by refusing to hire an applicant (EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch, read Alert here). The company believed...more
Since the early 2000s, the buzzing gnats of employment litigation involving retailers have been individual Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) lawsuits. Whether brought for unpaid overtime, working through lunches, or working off...more
Wednesday, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s statutory duty to conciliate to remedy a Title VII violation prior to filing a lawsuit on the violation is subject to some level...more
Retailers are all too familiar with collective actions filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) making claims for unpaid overtime based on alleged misclassification of employees as exempt, working off the clock, or not...more
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering the issue of whether under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, an employer who provides light-duty work to some employees, (such as those injured on the job) but not to all...more