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Generally, an employer’s duty to accommodate takes more than an employee merely disclosing a disability
In a recent Fourth Circuit decision , the plaintiff learned this lesson the hard way. The plaintiff, a lawyer who later earned a...
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Let’s get back to basics: FMLA notice requirements
Employees who want to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act must give at least 30 days advance notice if possible and practical....
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“March Madness” is ***checks notes*** not a serious health condition.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament began yesterday. Last night, I read that the average worker will spend seven hours watching it,...
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A new bill in congress would guarantee all workers get two weeks of paid time off
Yesterday, several House Democrats announced the introduction of the Protected Time Off (PTO) Act to guarantee all full-time...
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An employer settled claims it refused to accommodate a pregnant worker who then miscarried
“Miscarriages can be personally devastating. No one should have to choose between getting the pregnancy care they need and losing a...
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In rejecting an employee’s claim that DEI training fostered a hostile work environment, a federal appellate offered a stern warning to employers
Earlier this year, I wrote about a white employee in Colorado who claimed his former employer subjected him to a hostile work environment by...
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Here’s how bad documentation can cost a company big bucks when a former employee sues
Employment lawyers and human resources professionals regularly preach that managers must document employee performance issues as a best...
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The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, introduced this week in Congress, is exactly what you think it is
The same week that the U.S. Department of Labor’s rules on analyzing and determining who is an employee or independent contractor under...
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Employers must adjust employee performance standards to avoid penalizing employees on FMLA leave
Suppose one of your employees, a widget maker, takes leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act . As a widget maker, the employee has a...
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Is complaining about a hostile work environment enough to support a retaliation claim? Maybe. Maybe not.
(At least I didn’t say, “It depends.”) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from retaliating...
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When an employee sues, what law applies when they’ve worked in two states?
Famartin , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons I read a recent NJ federal court decision where a plaintiff began working for the...
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A federal judge has nixed the NLRB’s proposed new joint-employer rule
On Friday evening, a Texas federal judge blocked a proposed National Labor Relations Board rule that would have made it much easier for...
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Here’s what happens when a judge catches a plaintiff fabricating evidence of sexual harassment
Spoiler alert: it often doesn’t end well for the plaintiff or their lawyer. For example, let’s discuss this Second Circuit...
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Is it racist to falsely accuse someone of being a racist?
Let’s explore whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against accusations of racism. The...
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Can states legally ban “woke” training in the workplace?
In 2022, Florida passed The Individual Freedom Act. But most people know this law as the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” which stands for...
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An employer that fired an employee for a positive marijuana test may have discriminated against him too.
Right or wrong, an honest belief may be all it takes to proffer a nondiscriminatory reason for an adverse employment action. Do you...
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The Employer Handbook Friday Zoom Happy Hour Returns on Friday, March 8 at Noon ET
The U.S. Department of Labor rules on analyzing and determining who is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards...
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Instead of hiring a lawyer, a business owner ordered to pay wages used AI to prepare his appeal. It was a giant clusterf**k!
A multi-year dispute over unpaid wages went from bad to a whole lot worse for a Midwest business owner when he decided to appeal a trial court...
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Should Mrs. Doubtfire have been paid overtime?
It’s not like I woke up in a cold sweat, fixated on this obscure bit of Fair Labor Standards Act minutiae. But I did read this...
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Are we seeing a trend? More judges aren’t falling for spurious COVID-19 religious accommodation claims.
Earlier this week, I wrote about a judge calling out an employee for trying to cast a personal choice to remain unvaccinated against COVID-19...
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How do we help an employee who blurts obscenities and racial slurs to our customers uncontrollably?
Recently, I read a recent federal appellate court decision involving an employee with a rare form of Tourette Syndrome that caused him to...
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Can employers ban workers from wearing Black Lives Matter insignia to protest discrimination at work?
Photo by Brett Sayles: https://www.pexels.com/photo/slogan-black-lives-matter-on-black-board-4665903/ Last week, the National Labor...
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An employee who wanted religious exception for the COVID-19 vaccine got called on it. Guess what happened next?
I’ll bet nowhere on your HR job description is there anything about serving as the religion police. But during the pandemic, some...
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145,000 reasons not to tell an employee they have “old-timers disease.”
Also, it is a bad idea to give that same employee a “retire-or-be-fired” ultimatum shortly after they return from bypass heart...
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There’s one state where bringing a sexual harassment claim is much easier than the rest
In most places, a plaintiff who claims that their former employer sexually harassed them must establish that the conduct to which they were...