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Employment Law

Strike 2! Umpire who alleged race bias loses lawsuit appeal

08/21/2023
Angel Hernández, widely regarded as one of Major League Baseball’s worst umpires, failed to convince a federal appeals court that he missed out on plum assignments because of race discrimination.

Help staff with hearing impairments succeed

08/16/2023
The ADA requires employers to reasonably accommodate disabled applicants and employees so they can perform the essential functions of their jobs. What’s reasonable depends on the size of the employer, its assets and resources, and whether the requested accommodation is unduly expensive or disruptive.

Class-action risk: Comply now with PUMP Act

08/16/2023
The PUMP Act gave employees the right to sue their employers in federal court if they were denied milk expression breaks in a private location that’s not a bathroom. Now, just months later, the first PUMP Act lawsuit has been filed, on behalf of all similarly situated employees of the U.S. Postal Service.

Proposed rules explain how to comply with PWFA

08/14/2023
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect June 27, requires employers with 15 or more employees to make reasonable accommodations when workers need them because of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, such as fertility treatments or postpartum depression.

Prepare for more lawsuits objecting to DEI

08/14/2023
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two religious-freedom and -discrimination cases. One allowed a web designer to decline to serve customers if the assignment went against her religious beliefs. The other made it harder for employers to refuse to accommodate a worker’s religious beliefs. Now, a freshly filed federal discrimination lawsuit brings the two principles together for the first time.

Review work rules in light of NLRB’s new pro-employee ruling

08/14/2023
As political winds shift, so do National Labor Relations Board rulings. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the realm of cases addressing worker rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

CROWN Act spreads among the states in effort to prevent race discrimination

08/11/2023
Texas recently became the 21st state to add natural hairstyle protection to its laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. It’s part of a legislative trend to enact what are called CROWN Acts.

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.