The past several weeks have seen significant action from the major federal agencies involved with employment law: EEOC, NLRB, DOL, and OSHA. In today's new episode, Mike Schmidt will highlight the direction these agencies...more
4/20/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Incentive Plans ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
OSHA ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
This is Part 2 of Mike Schmidt's 2-part episode pitting employee/plaintiff-side lawyer Hope Pordy, Esq. against employer/defendant-side lawyer Jeremy Glenn, Esq. to finish debating some interesting HR topics....more
4/17/2020
/ At-Will Employment ,
Code of Conduct ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Exempt-Employees ,
First Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Social Media ,
Unions ,
Work Life Balance ,
Workplace Communication
This episode presents Part 2 of 2 on workplace issues when employees use marijuana, and also discusses two significant developments from the NLRB involving independent contractors and individual employee gripes....more
1/31/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Drug Possession ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Entrepreneurs ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Right to Control
We're back! This brand new episode addresses the 10 developments you may have missed from this past summer of 2018, including employees secretly recording the workplace, new non-compete legislation, the unstoppable #MeToo...more
9/11/2018
/ #MeToo ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
New Legislation ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Opinion Letter ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Social Media Policy ,
State Labor Laws ,
Video Recordings ,
Wage and Hour
This episode welcomes the start of Spring by addressing hot labor and employment developments on e-mail curfews, the DOL’s new voluntary self-audit program, social media discovery in lawsuits, employees losing their...more
“It’s the Relationships, Stupid.” This final episode of 2017 looks back at the topics and guests from volume 1 of the podcast, and somehow ties former President Bill Clinton to today’s operative premise in employer/employee...more
This episode replays an interview of the podcast host, Mike Schmidt, that was originally aired on SiriusXM Channel 111, The Business Channel. Mike discusses the nature of adverse actions taken by employers due to employee...more
Michael Schmidt of Cozen O'Connor addresses recent trends and noteworthy developments on certain employment policies related to political activity, confidential customer information, FMLA retaliation, and maximum leave...more
8/21/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
But For Causation ,
Confidential Information ,
Covered Employer ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Macy's ,
Mixed Motive Cases ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Paid Leave ,
Popular ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Retaliation ,
Social Media Policy ,
Standard of Proof ,
Termination ,
Unpaid Leave ,
UPS ,
Voluntary Participation
This was supposed to be posted last Wednesday morning. All kinds of great insight into what a(nother) Clinton White House would mean for social media and employment law. Then came the required post-election cut and paste....more
It is this time every year, as I am wrapping things up over at “social media and employment law blog” central, – and particularly in this latest political election year – that I am reminded of that election campaign more than...more
It gets boring to blog just about the NLRB. We need some judicial action to get the juices flowing a little more. We got a little something last week. Question: Is merely clicking the “like” button on Facebook tantamount to...more
WTF already?! As in, “where’s the fairness?” Time for an acronym update from our favorite government acronym, the NLRB. You will certainly remember that we have recommended asking yourself three questions before determining...more
I don’t know if you are or aren’t. That’s probably for a different timeforhardselfassessmentlawblog.com (wish I had purchased that domain). However, I do know that your employees apparently can call their manager a nasty...more
Here’s the truth: we are a litigious society. For a lot of reasons beyond the scope of this blog, a smarter workforce with ever-increasing access to information and resources continues to file employment lawsuits in record...more
6/12/2014
/ Automotive Industry ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Obscenity ,
Popular ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Section 7 ,
Termination ,
Trucking Industry
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how the NLRB continues to have problems with policies and practices that prohibit employees from engaging in vague, undefined behavior that could constitute “protected concerted...more
In prior posts, I summarized the three-step analysis that employers should use before taking adverse action against an employee because of that employee’s social media activity:
1. Was the social...more
What a quagmire we find ourselves in. Actually, that the NLRB finds itself in. Although continuing to issue rulings and advice memoranda in a sort of free- and unfettered-looking way, the question of the NLRB’s authority to...more
Happy New Year. So much has happened while you spent the holidays undoubtedly velobinding and wrapping the 2012 archives of this blog for your friends and loved ones. So I thought I’d welcome everyone back by updating some...more