“The rock and the hard place.” How often do employers find themselves here? If employers have LGBTQ employees in certain states, they are now bumping up against the “rock” of federal laws, like Title VII and Title IX, and the...more
5/14/2024
/ Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Discrimination ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
LGBTQ ,
Mandatory Requirements ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title IX ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Workplace Harassment Guidance
Sexual orientation, gender identity, and race continue to be widely discussed and politicized throughout the U.S. Issues related to these protected categories also continue to arise in the workplace. The EEOC recently issued...more
10/17/2023
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Harassment ,
Investigations ,
LGBTQ ,
Proposed Guidance ,
Race Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Title VII
How does an employer owe someone earning over $200,000 per year overtime? By claiming the employee is salaried exempt — but not really paying a salary.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on February 22, 2023 in Helix Energy...more
Compassion can be a wonderful tool in many of the things we do in Human Resources and the labor and employment legal world. It’s also a great starting point when an employee walks into an HR or supervisor’s office to say...more
Hospitals, outpatient clinics, and telehealth practices know they need policies and training on their employee equal employment and anti-harassment policies. These health care providers know that when supervisors are not...more
The Supreme Court Thursday afternoon released its much-anticipated decisions regarding the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) issued late last year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the...more
1/14/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Biden v Missouri ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Federation of Independent Business v Department of Labor and OSHA ,
OSHA ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
Developments immediately before the holiday break have many employers scrambling as the OSHA ETS has seemingly come back to life. The Sixth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision by a 3-member panel, dissolved the temporary stay...more
If your company is a federal government contractor, be prepared to pay your employees at least $15 per hour as a minimum wage starting January 30, 2022. (If you are unsure if you are a federal government contractor, click...more
For more than a year, the world has reacted to and adjusted for COVID-19. Now, with the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, there is light at the end of the tunnel and individuals and companies can start moving forward and planning...more
4/1/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Best Practices ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Indemnification Clauses ,
LMRA ,
Masks ,
NLRA ,
OSHA ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Remote Working ,
Social Distancing ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year (in the “Bostock” case) that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation and transgender status, many predicted the...more
2/23/2021
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Biden Administration ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Employee Training ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
On September 22, 2020, President Trump issued an Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping (the “Executive Order”). The Executive Order applies to federal contractors and subcontractors, as well as organizations...more
A few weeks ago, we told you the story of Hannah and Bob, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark holding that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being gay,...more
8/4/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Applications ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEO-1 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Gender Identity ,
Grooming Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Personnel Records ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ,
SCOTUS ,
Termination ,
Title VII
To illustrate why an employer violates federal employment law by discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, the United States Supreme Court majority told the stories of Hannah and Bob. More...more
6/16/2020
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
On March 27, 2020, the EEOC conducted a webinar that answered some of employers’ most frequently asked questions about compliance with public health directives and federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws during the COVID-19...more
3/31/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Best Practices ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Health and Safety ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Health ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Risk Management ,
Workplace Safety
When your company needs to do a mass layoff, you should already be thinking about the following issues:
- How and when you will communicate the decision to employees
- Whether the reduction will adversely impact any...more
2/4/2020
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Layoff Notices ,
Layoffs ,
New Legislation ,
Notice Requirements ,
Severance Pay ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
WARN Act
Wage and hour laws. Child labor laws. OSHA laws. Immigration laws. When employers do not comply with these types of employment laws, civil charges and lawsuits are not the only thing that can happen. In what may come as...more
Human resources and other professionals who review job positions for possible exemptions under the federal wage and hour law (the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA) are familiar with the “salary basis” and “job duties” tests....more
Block FMLA leave has its own challenges. But intermittent FMLA leave can be downright painful – including the fact that intermittent leave claims are the most common type of lawsuit under the FMLA.
When employees need to...more
Some pretty horrifying facts about workplace conduct at the Providence, R.I., Fire Department involving co-workers: calling a female lieutenant firefighter “bitch” “c—t,” “lesbian lover,” and “lesbo”; telling her, “I don’t...more
2/7/2018
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Title VII
Some of our attorneys attended an update meeting with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Miami leadership on June 16, 2017. Mike Farrell is the EEOC Miami District Director, and Bob Weisberg is the EEOC...more
You are an HR generalist at a 300-bed community hospital. Your boss has instructed you to make sure that all personnel files document that the employee received the hospital’s annual mandatory flu vaccination. However, you...more
As if employers already did not have enough reasons to have to think through termination decisions carefully, here is yet another “trigger” word that should make employers think twice about plans to discipline or fire an...more
8/24/2016
/ Employee Handbooks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Gun Laws ,
Guns-in-Trunks Legislation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Negligent Hiring ,
OSHA ,
Workplace Safety ,
Workplace Violence ,
Wrongful Termination
Hospitals and other health care facilities often do not know exactly how many hours each week they may need nurses and other allied health staff to work. Other employees may get sick, have a baby, go on vacation, or patient...more
Though most Americans do not seem to realize it, anti-discrimination legal protections in employment for transgender, gay, bisexual, and lesbian (LGBT) employees are not uniform across the U.S. In fact, the federal Employment...more
Depression. Anxiety. Bipolar Disorder.
These and similar mental health diagnoses may affect your boss, the CEO of your company, the head of HR, your assistant, two of your peer workers, or maybe even you....more