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Employment Law

Travel time & money: Lessons for employers

08/20/2024
Tracking working time and reimbursing nonexempt employees for their traveling expenses can be difficult tasks. Fail to do both and you’ll end up in the middle seat on a long flight to nowhere. Two cases illustrate.

Didn’t know about customer harassment? Unless you were reckless, you won’t be liable

08/19/2024
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers are liable for the sexual harassment of their employees unless they have a solid no-harassment policy, a clear process for bringing harassment to management’s attention and a process to stop harassment as soon as possible. Employers must still try to prevent and stop the harassment, but employees are unlikely to win in court unless they can show that their employer recklessly permitted the customer harassment.

Beware workplace bullying, now potentially grounds for lawsuit

08/19/2024
In April, the Supreme Court’s decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis lowered the standard for what constitutes sex discrimination. The case substantially changed the rules on what employees must prove to win a discrimination case. At the time, management-side employment lawyers predicted the ruling would unleash a flood of lawsuits. Now we have one of the first cases testing the ruling’s limits.

Prepare to notify current and past employees about FTC’s pending noncompete ban

08/19/2024
The Federal Trade Commission’s rule banning noncompete agreements is set to take effect Wednesday, Sept. 4. In addition to forbidding employers from enforcing existing noncompete agreements and requiring employees to sign new ones, the rule says employers must notify current and past employees who have signed noncompete agreements about the ban. Plan now to comply with the notification requirement—even though the rule may never go into effect.

Accommodate employees with eating disorders

08/14/2024
According to a study published by the Harvard School of Public Health, 9% of Americans will eventually have an eating disorder. The study calculated that eating disorders cost $48.6 billion in lost productivity each year due to missed work and compromised job performance.

Million-dollar mistake: Nonprofit employing disabled workers zapped for disability bias

08/14/2024
One would assume that a nonprofit company created to employ disabled workers would be up on anti-disability discrimination rules. Alas, no, if a recent EEOC settlement is any indication.

Understanding internalized gender and racial bias in feedback

08/14/2024
Recent data analysis from Textio, a company that says it was built to help companies hire and develop remarkable teams, highlights a critical issue in the workplace: the internalization of gender and racial bias in performance feedback. These biases significantly impact how feedback is perceived and processed by employees, affecting their performance, morale and even career progression.

Here’s what the EEOC’s lawyers are focusing on this year

08/12/2024
Despite the looming election and Supreme Court decisions that could eventually curtail the influence of federal agencies, the EEOC continues to push an aggressively pro-employee agenda, and it’s committed to filing lawsuits against employers that violate anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws.

HR pros: Courts will hold you to the highest standards

08/12/2024
The ethics of our profession require HR practitioners and leaders to behave in ways that are beyond reproach when it comes to carrying out HR duties and in their personal conduct at work. That’s especially true when it comes to administering anti-bias and anti-harassment policies. When those who are supposed to guarantee a bias-free work environment are the source of bias and harassment, that is a potent source of legal risk.

You don’t have to be an EEOC mind reader: When it comes to harassment, rely on latest guidance

08/09/2024
In April, the EEOC released Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, a comprehensive online resource a commission statement said was intended to help “employers in creating respectful workplaces.” As a practical matter, the guidance created a one-stop resource employers can use to update their harassment rules, addressing all forms of harassment covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.