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Employment Law

Need to lay off older employee? You can do so without violating age discrimination laws

03/06/2019
Eliminating an older worker’s job doesn’t necessarily mean you are committing age discrimination—as long as you don’t replace the worker with someone substantially younger.

Light duty for pregnant employees? Not if you don’t offer it to other disabled workers

03/06/2019
Pregnant employees are entitled to light-duty assignments if the employer allows other disabled employees to be assigned to temporary light-duty positions. But what if no such work is available?

FMLA: Keep records of all absences, whether or not they were approved

03/06/2019
Sloppy attendance record-keeping can lead to lengthy and expensive litigation. Particular trouble awaits if you fire an employee for poor attendance around the time she requests or takes FMLA leave. That almost guarantees a lawsuit.

Have a hotline? Take all complaints seriously

03/06/2019
Most employers have heard that setting up a hotline so employees can report discrimination will help them defend against lawsuits later. But that hotline can also bite the employer if it doesn’t take complaints seriously and try to fix reported problems.

Denied lateral transfer isn’t adverse action

03/06/2019
Generally, a worker cannot win a discrimination lawsuit without showing he experienced an adverse employment action such as discharge or demotion. A denied lateral transfer may not count.

DOL alleges contractor dropped dime on injured employee

03/05/2019
The U.S. Department of Labor is suing a Boston construction company, alleging its CEO retaliated against an injured employee by facilitating his arrest.

EPA case DOA in Supreme Court, tossed back to 9th Circuit

03/05/2019
The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 25 vacated a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a 2018 Equal Pay Act case for a novel reason: The judge who wrote the majority opinion and cast one of the majority votes died before the opinion was released.

High cost of misclassification: $1.4 million

02/28/2019
The owners of a West Virginia coal mine have agreed to settle a U.S. Department of Labor wage-and-hour lawsuit that alleged 214 hourly employees had been misclassified as “salaried” staff, cheating them out of overtime pay.

Bill would make it easier to sue for age discrimination

02/26/2019
A bipartisan coalition of representatives and senators have introduced legislation to strengthen employment protections for older workers.

NYC is first to ban bias on the basis of hairstyles

02/26/2019
The New York City Commission on Human Rights has issued guidance making clear that the city considers discrimination on the basis of someone’s hairstyle to be a subset of race discrimination.