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Employment Law

EEOC touts #MeToo year of accomplishments

11/20/2018
The EEOC began fiscal year 2018 last fall, just as the #MeToo movement began calling out workplace sexual harassment. It marked the start of a productive year for the commission.

Facebook, Google end harassment-arbitration rules

11/19/2018
Under pressure from employees, a pair of tech giants—Facebook and Google—revised their policies last month to make private arbitration a choice (rather than a requirement) in employee sexual harassment claims.

Don’t assign disciplinary points for reporting injuries

11/19/2018
A federal court awarded a machine operator in Wisconsin $100,000 in back wages and compensatory damages after he was fired soon after reporting an on-the-job injury.

Employment law update: Harassment training, Labor Class protections

11/14/2018
Final statewide sexual harassment policy and training guidelines have finally been issued in New York, and the rules differ significantly in several important ways. Plus, more civil service employees now have job protection.

$385k judgment against Yonkers health care facility

11/14/2018
A nursing home in Yonkers and its owner will have to pay over $385,000 in back pay and penalties to 81 employees after investigators found numerous violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Posting FMLA notice helps cut off lawsuits

11/14/2018
Employers that post appropriate FMLA notices alerting workers to their FMLA rights—and train managers on the FMLA—generally get the benefit of the two-year deadline.

Special oversight OK for disabled employees who telecommute

11/14/2018
It’s OK to set slightly different conditions for two kinds of telecommuters, such as requiring tighter monitoring for disabled workers.

Employee doesn’t return after FMLA runs out? OK to fire for violating attendance policy

11/14/2018
If for some reason an employee doesn’t return to work at the end of his FMLA entitlement, then the employer is free to enforce a no-show, voluntary-quit rule based on the absences.

While you must accommodate disabilities, you don’t have to tolerate chronic absenteeism

11/14/2018
Employers must reasonably accommodate disabled workers so they can perform the essential functions of their jobs. But at what point does absenteeism make it impossible for the worker to perform the job?

Beat bias lawsuits by showing you enforce attendance rules fairly and impartially

11/14/2018
Courts like to see employers use fair, business-related reasons for discipline. A neutral no-fault attendance policy, applied evenhandedly to all workers in the same job classification, is very likely to stand up in court.