As previously reported in EmployNews, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recently taken the administrative and litigation position that the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII directly prohibit...more
On July 14, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced changes to its proposed employer pay data collection proposal. The proposal would require employers to submit on an annual basis summary pay information for...more
When a terminated employee alleges that her firing resulted from discrimination or retaliation, employers often dispute those claims by noting that the employer never hired anyone to take the terminated employee’s position....more
7/26/2016
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Harassment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Protected Class ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Remand ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Termination ,
Title VII
In response to employer complaints and a new federal lawsuit, on July 13, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a delay in enforcement of the non-retaliation portions of its new injury and...more
7/26/2016
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Final Rules ,
Incentives ,
OSHA ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Time Extensions ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety
In its 2004 Oakwood Care decision, the National Labor Relations Board concluded that a union seeking to organize a unit of workers that includes both permanent and temporary employees obtained from a third-party agency, must...more
Here is a common human resource scenario: An employee goes out of work on medical leave. While she is away from work, the managers or co-workers who cover her duties discover that the work can be readily accomplished without...more
7/19/2016
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dismissals ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Legitimate Business Interest ,
Medical Leave ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reduction in Hours ,
Reinstatement ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 Ragsdale decision rejected Department of Labor regulations stating that failure to provide employees with notice of leave rights was a per se violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act....more
In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an Enforcement Guidance stating when employers’ use of criminal background checks to exclude applicants from jobs violates Title VII. The Guidance states the EEOC’s...more
7/13/2016
/ Appeals ,
Attorney General ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Disparate Impact ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Felons ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Justiciable Controversy ,
Remand ,
Standing ,
Title VII
Overtime paid to non-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act must be at time and one-half of the employee’s “regular rate.” The regular rate includes most compensation paid to the employee, such as bonuses and...more
Restaurants and some other businesses that use employees partially compensated by tips can claim a tip credit toward the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage requirements. However, the FLSA strictly regulates the servers’...more
The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act imposes liability on employers for failure to pay promised wages. The law is modeled after the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and like the FLSA, individual managers and officers of a...more
Thanks to the intervention of a federal district court in Texas, the federal Department of Labor’s new “Persuader” rules did not go into effect as scheduled on July 1, 2016. The rules for the first time would require legal...more
In order to claim most exemptions from overtime and minimum wage requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay a guaranteed salary. Employers can only deduct from such salaries in very limited...more
Under the “hired to invent” doctrine, employees who develop intellectual property during the course of their employment generally have no ownership rights to such innovations. Earlier this month, the North Carolina Supreme...more
6/28/2016
/ Assignment of Inventions ,
Bonuses ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Failure To Pay ,
Hired To Invent Doctrine ,
IP Assignment Agreements ,
NC Supreme Court ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patents ,
Rescission ,
Reversal ,
Wage and Hour
On June 20, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to provide a definitive opinion on a pay issue that has concerned automobile dealerships for years. The question involves whether dealership service advisors fall under the...more
6/28/2016
/ Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Car Dealerships ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Navarro v Encino Motorcars ,
Over-Time ,
Sales Commissions ,
SCOTUS ,
Service Advisors ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
How should Human Resources respond to the following scenario?: An employee reports that she recently separated from her husband and obtained a domestic violence restraining order. Several co-workers approach HR to report that...more
Last month’s CRST decision by the U.S. Supreme Court raised hopes for employers seeking to recover attorneys’ fees from the EEOC after prevailing in litigation against the agency. Last week, the Eighth Circuit Court of...more
Earlier this month in McFeeley v. Jackson Street Entertainment, LLC, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) concluded that exotic dancers were employees entitled to minimum...more
In last year’s Young decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found that an employer could not exclude pregnant employees from participation in a light duty work program absent demonstration of significant burdens that would result...more
As previously reported in EmployNews, the National Labor Relations Board has issued numerous recent decisions finding that employers’ use of class and collective action waiver provisions in mandatory arbitration agreements...more
For more than a half-century, Department of Labor regulations issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act have allowed employers to adopt an administrative rounding policy to prevent situations where the employer would be...more
The Department of Labor’s new salary level of $47,476 for white collar employees exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act takes effect December 1. While the new rules more than double the current...more
Title VII allows federal courts to award attorneys’ fees to the prevailing party in discrimination suits. While plaintiffs typically receive their fees if they win a discrimination or retaliation claim, defendants can also...more
Most hostile environment harassment claims brought under Title VII involve allegations of offensive conduct by the plaintiff’s supervisors or co-workers. In a few situations, the employee alleges that his or her subordinates...more
Last month, the National Labor Relations Board continued its rejection of employer conduct policies intended to promote harmonious and productive working relationships among employees. In T-Mobile USA, Inc., unionized...more