Based on a real lawsuit. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Facts may not be 100 percent accurate. PART ONE: Imagine you're the boss. You run a fast-food franchise, Flippin' Burgers. You hire Gwendolyn to...more
10/25/2024
/ Absenteeism ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Interference Claims ,
Notification Requirements ,
Professional Disciplinary Actions ,
Retaliation ,
Serious Health Conditions ,
Summary Judgment ,
Wage and Hour ,
Written Communications
Stuff's getting real. As many of you know, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is starting to sue employers who it claims are not complying with the reasonable accommodation requirements of the Pregnant Workers...more
Don't be this employer. (Allegedly.) Not long ago, I posted about an employer who won summary judgment in an FMLA case and noted five things that the employer did right, which helped it win. Sad to say, a decision came out...more
How'd that happen? An employer who terminated an employee after he took intermittent FMLA leave for diabetes won its case, and recently won again on appeal. According to both courts, the employee appeared to be trying to...more
9/20/2024
/ Clearance ,
Commercial Driving Licenses ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Family Medical Leave ,
FMCSA ,
Honest Belief Defense ,
Interference Claims ,
Intermittent Leave ,
Medical Certification Requests ,
Performance Reviews ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour
If you follow these, you should be in great shape. Reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act continues to flummox many employers. But it shouldn’t be that hard, at least not in most cases. Here are...more
8/16/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Wage and Hour
A lot has changed since Mother's Day 2023. Happy Mother's Day weekend, all, including you dads and kids (we couldn't have done it without you)!
How much do you know about pregnancy in the workplace in 2023? Take our quiz...more
5/10/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Documentation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Healthcare ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
Pregnancy ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”) ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Title VII
These steps could help keep you out of trouble.
An employee in a safety-sensitive job who has been diagnosed with cancer is selected for a random drug test. The test result comes back positive for TCHA...more
2/9/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Cannabis Products ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Documentation ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
THC ,
Wage and Hour
Don't shoot from the hip.
Let's say you have an employee who is in Week Six of "employee's own serious health condition" leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Her co-worker comes to you and tells you that the...more
Happy Mother's Day weekend.
How much do you know about the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which will take effect only six short weeks from now? Take our Mother’s Day quiz and find out! You don’t have to be a mother (or...more
In other words, which presidents can we -- ahem -- blame?
George and Abe say, "Don't look at us."
Just kidding. In honor of President's Day, I thought it might be fun to review which presidents were responsible for the...more
2/17/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
GINA ,
Labor Policies ,
Layoffs ,
NLRA ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
USERRA ,
Wage and Hour
The USDOL has issued a handy little guide.
One of the biggest challenges employers with remote workers face is how to comply with wage and hour laws.
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a Bulletin discussing the...more
Even if the employee doesn't qualify.
Picture this. You ask your boss whether you can take leave under the FMLA. Your boss asks why you want the leave, and you say your cat is sick.* It's your favorite cat. Your boss...more
Employers, don't be too rigid about employee notice requirements.
Weird case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Imagine this: You're the HR manager at a manufacturing facility. An hourly employee has...more
Here's a handy summary of the federal employment laws that apply to vets.
In honor of Veterans Day, I'm republishing, with a few edits, a post I wrote in 2020 that summarizes the federal employment laws that apply to...more
Fictional, but based on a true story.
It was a dark and stormy night.
There I was, the second shift HR supervisor, trying to renew my annual subscription to SHRM during some down time. It was about 9:30 p.m.
"Your credit...more
Sheesh. I would think so! Here's a story for you:
Some investors bought an apartment complex in Houston with the plan to fix it up and flip it. They decided the Property Manager wasn't doing a good job, so they fired her...more
So misunderstood!
NOTE FROM ROBIN: Earlier this year, I began a series of very basic explanations of the federal laws that govern the workplace. The first installment covered discrimination in general, and the second...more
9/16/2022
/ ADEA ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
At-Will Employment ,
Discrimination ,
Documentation ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Termination ,
Title VII ,
USERRA ,
Wage and Hour
The court is right, I think.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion on Wednesday that provides helpful clarification for employers and their leave administrators.
...more
Of course it is!
Every time I think I’ve heard everything, I hear another thing.
Melinda Abbt was a firefighter for the City of Houston. On her own personal computer, she had a video of herself dancing nude. She made the...more
I'm not sure the ADA will let you do that.
There has been a lot in the news lately about job applicants who include their COVID-19 vaccination status on their resumes, employers who ask applicants for that information, and...more
10/8/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Medical Examinations ,
Medical History ,
OSHA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Beliefs ,
Title VII ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour
Employers, don't get played.
"This is an employment-at-will state, and I can fire you for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all."
Oh, yeah?...
...more
5/28/2021
/ At-Will Employment ,
Discrimination ,
Documentation ,
Due Process ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Retaliation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblowers
Test your knowledge about the FMLA, pregnancy bias, and more!
How much do you know about moms in the workplace . . . in 2021? Take our quiz and find out! As long as you are a mom, have a mom, love a mom, or know a mom, you...more
5/7/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Biden Administration ,
Child Care ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
In Loco Parentis ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
Maternity Leave ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Vaccinations
Before the coming crackdown.
We expect federal agencies under the Biden Administration to move in a not-so-employer-friendly direction as soon as they have a chance to get settled in. While they're still settling in, this...more
4/16/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Biden Administration ,
Caregivers ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Independent Contractors ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
OSHA ,
Performance Reviews ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Videoconference ,
Workplace Safety
Bless this employer's heart.
Ten years ago or so, every employment lawyer and his sister was calling the interaction between workers' compensation, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act...more
4/9/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Light-Duty Positions ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Pregnancy Disability Leave Law ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workers' Compensation Claim ,
Workplace Injury
And employers will like it.
NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is the text of a Legal Bulletin that we sent out today. I am posting it here for those of you who don't subscribe to our bulletins.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity...more
12/17/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) ,
Employee Rights ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
GINA ,
Health Care Providers ,
New Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Personal Information ,
Pharmacies ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Title II ,
Title VII