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
The joint employer rule has been a hot topic in the last several years, mostly in the context of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Recall the drama of the Trump administration's narrower definition of a joint employer for...more
Although the issue of whether someone can sue a church for employment discrimination doesn’t come up often, in Our Lady Of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the Supreme Court expanded the ministerial exception that...more
7/16/2020
/ Age Discrimination ,
Appeals ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employment Discrimination ,
First Amendment ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Ministerial Exception ,
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v Morrissey-Berru ,
Religious Schools ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Teachers
Add this case to your “Be Sure to Document Your Non-Discriminatory Reasons” file. An employee doing bad things lost on summary judgment in an employment discrimination action, even though she alleged that the company did not...more
11/1/2019
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Appeals ,
Dismissals ,
Employee Misconduct ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Evidence ,
Failure to Investigate ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Summary Judgment
Sometimes employment laws can make the common person’s head spin. That certainly could be the case for a recent Fifth Circuit opinion examining the “highly compensated” regulatory exemption from the overtime requirements of...more
9/5/2019
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Independent Contractors ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
In a case that garnered big headlines, the Supreme Court weighed in yesterday on whether a claimant’s failure to amend her EEOC charge divests the federal court from hearing part of her Title VII claim. While the decision...more
6/5/2019
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Amended Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Forfeiture ,
Fort Bend County Texas v Davis ,
Jurisdictional Requirements ,
Mandatory Claim-Processing Rules ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Title VII ,
Waiver Rule ,
Wrongful Termination
Employment law is full of burden-shifting, prima facie standards and evidentiary hurdles. Sometimes, even the courts apply the wrong standard at the wrong stage of a case. That appears to be what happened in the case of...more
5/23/2019
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discovery ,
Disparate Treatment ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Pleading Standards ,
Reversal ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title VII
In Wittmer v. Phillips 66, Judge James Ho of the Fifth Circuit wasted no time stating the Fifth Circuit’s position on whether sexual orientation or transgender status are protected classes under Title VII – they are not....more
2/15/2019
/ Appeals ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interviews ,
Job Applicants ,
LGBTQ ,
Misrepresentation ,
Protected Class ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
You might have seen all the buzz about the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Kleber v. CareFusion Corporation holding that job applicants were not covered by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Does that mean...more
Not all requests for accommodation or FMLA leave will fit into neat boxes like “pregnancy” or “knee surgery.” Because the ADA definition of a disability includes any impairment that affects a major life function, employers...more
1/7/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interactive Process ,
Leave of Absence ,
Mental Health ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Summary Judgment ,
Traveling Employee
Many employers have progressive discipline policies. Are they always followed? Probably not. Should they be? Absolutely, and Lindeman v. St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, a recent case in the Eighth Circuit, demonstrates...more
Employment lawyers and most HR professionals are familiar with the Faragher-Ellerth defense to a claim of sexual harassment. In short, if an employer can show that (1) it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct...more
9/13/2018
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Appeals ,
Complaint Procedures ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dismissals ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Failure to Report ,
Faragher/Ellerth defense ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Hostile Environment ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title VII
Many of us remember the classic scene from “Office Space” where Jennifer Aniston’s waitress character was chastised for not having enough “flair”—whimsical buttons on her uniform. The Fifth Circuit recently addressed the...more
7/11/2018
/ Appeals ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Section 7 ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Uniforms ,
Unions
When do you have to pay an employee before a shift? In Llorca v. Sheriff (Collier County, Florida), the Eleventh Circuit waded into the rich history of what types of pre-shift activities might qualify for hourly compensation....more
Does an employee’s protection under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) stop when the employee ceases to be pregnant? The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was confronted with this question in Stephanie Hicks v. City of...more
When does workplace hugging go too far? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently weighed in with an opinion. Victoria Zetwick, a county correctional officer, based her Title VII hostile work environment suit almost...more
Can a plaintiff get emotional distress damages in a wage and hour claim? In December 2016, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion of first impression where it found that a plaintiff filing a retaliation claim as part of an...more
There is an update on the Fourth Circuit decision that ruled that the FBI could reject a male agent candidate who failed his physical fitness test by not being able to do one additional push-up. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme...more
Is there such a thing as a disparate impact age claim? The Eleventh circuit last week says not for people applying for a job. On October 5, 2016, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion shutting down claims...more
Last week the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a case the EEOC filed over a job applicant’s short dreadlocks. In 2010, Chastity Jones, an African American, applied for a position with...more
9/20/2016
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Disparate Treatment ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Ethnicity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Race Discrimination ,
Title VII
This week, the Ninth Circuit held that Ernst & Young’s (E&Y) arbitration agreement that prohibited its employees from filing class actions violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). E&Y required as a condition of...more
8/25/2016
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Dismissals ,
Ernst & Young ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
NLRA ,
Pre-Employment Agreements ,
Section 7
Providing legal scholars nationwide a unique opportunity to opine on worm-farming, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held on Friday, October 2, that farm workers involved in the growing of bait worms are exempt overtime...more
From the “You’d Think This Would Be Obvious” file in August, the Tenth Circuit reversed a district court’s granting of summary judgment in favor of an employer in a case in which a male employee allegedly exposed his genitals...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently struck a blow for employer’s rights to regulate headgear, specifically baseball caps....more
On December 2, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment on behalf of Swedish Match North America, Inc. in a case in which its former male salesperson, Donald Rickard, claimed he suffered age and sex...more