In This Issue:

- “Here’s Looking At You, Kid” - The EEOC Looks For Beauty Bias By James J. McDonald, Jr. (Irvine) -

The EEOC is currently investigating Marylou’s Coffee, a chain of Massachusetts coffee shops, for its practice for hiring young attractive women to serve coffee. The EEOC’s investigation was not triggered from a complaint by a rejected applicant or fired employee. Rather, it is a “Commission-initiated investigation” conducted, according to the director of the EEOC’s Boston office, because “it’s possible that applicants or employees might not know that they have been discriminated against.”

- Coming Into Focus: An Overview Of The NLRB’s Most Recent Guidance On Social Media And Confidentiality Policies By Karen Luchka (Columbia) -

In the last ten months, the National Labor Relations Board has issued three separate reports on social media. The first two reports, which were released in August 2011 and January 2012, left no doubt that the Board was paying close attention to employers’ treatment of social media use by employees and scrutinizing policies that restricted employees’ use of social media. The two reports focused primarily on employers’ discipline of employees for content posted on social media sites and left many employers feeling like the Board’s position on what was acceptable content for social media and related policies was lacking clarity....

- Liability Beyond Your Workers’ Compensation Coverage By Dan O’Brien and Nikki Farley (Cleveland)

Pop quiz!

True or False? Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy for employees pursuing a recovery against their employer. The answer is of course false. The exclusive remedy doctrine provides that when an employee is injured within the course and scope of employment, the employer’s liability is limited to benefits payable under the state’s workers’ compensation statutes; mainly lost wages and medical benefits...