Employment Law

Add COVID brain fog to the growing list of disabilities requiring reasonable accommodation

08/11/2023

According to a new study published in The Lancet, individuals who contracted COVID-19 and experienced continuing or recurring symptoms like brain fog often experience lasting cognitive damage. For employers and the supervisors who manage employees with long-COVID brain fog, it means offering reasonable accommodations when requested.

ADA: Consider hybrid work as possible reasonable accommodation

08/07/2023

Under the ADA, disabled workers may be entitled to modified work schedules if it will allow them to perform the essential functions of their jobs. However, most courts recognize that in-person work can be an essential job function. But then there’s hybrid work in which employees sometimes report to their employers’ premises and sometimes work from home. Can hybrid work be a reasonable accommodation for a disabled worker?

Is working a 16-hour shift an essential function? Maybe

08/04/2023

The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations so disabled employees can perform the essential functions of their jobs. Generally, employers get to determine which functions are essential and which are not. Courts tend to defer to an employer’s assessment of what’s essential and what is not when determining whether a reasonable accommodation is possible. However, it’s not a slam-dunk that they will.

What the big UPS–Teamsters Union contract means for employers

08/04/2023

United Parcel Service and the Teamsters Union, which represents more than 340,000 UPS employees, have tentatively agreed to a new union contract that—if approved by rank-and-file workers—will avert a strike that threatened to shut down the U.S. supply chain just as retailers are gearing up for busy back-to-school and holiday seasons.

EEOC releases guidance on accommodating employees with visual disabilities

07/31/2023

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 18.4% of all U.S. adults are blind or have “some” or “a lot” of difficulty seeing, even when wearing corrective lenses.

How to protect against the coming explosion of anti-DEI lawsuits

07/31/2023

When the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down Harvard University’s affirmative action admissions plan, it wrote that “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” Now employers with diversity, equity and inclusion programs worry that their efforts to achieve a diverse workplace will come under attack, too.

Ask these questions when challenging employee requests for religious accommodations

07/28/2023

According to the Supreme Court, employers can’t justify turning down a request for a religious reasonable accommodation because of its impact on morale for co-workers who may have to pick up weekend or holiday shifts so their religious colleague can have the time off. However, nothing in the recent Groff v. DeJoy decision says employers can’t challenge up front whether an employee is eligible for religious accommodations.

Monitoring: Beware fixating on productivity

07/26/2023

Are supervisors asking to install tracking software on their remote employees’ computers and devices? They may be suffering from what Microsoft has termed “productivity paranoia.”

A matter of morals … or discrimination? Expect more cases claiming ‘expressive association’

07/24/2023

The Supreme Court ruled in June that a Colorado web designer could decline to develop sites celebrating same-sex weddings based on her First Amendment expressive freedom of association. Now a different employer—a Catholic school—is trying to argue it has the right to “expressive association” in the employment context, able to reject applicants or fire employees who don’t live up to its views on moral behavior.

AI in the workplace must conform to anti-discrimination laws

07/20/2023

Recent guidance from the EEOC covers AI in employers’ selection procedures—hiring, firing and promotion decisions—and whether using AI in this manner has a disparate impact on protected groups.