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Employment Law

OK to ditch telegraph under new CalOSHA regulations

02/24/2015
The California state legislature made changes to both CalOSHA reporting requirements and fines for violations.

Whistle-blower can go directly to court after internal review

02/24/2015
An employee who tries to internally report alleged wrongdoing and is then fired can pursue internal remedies—and then go directly to court with her discharge and retaliation claims.

Act fast to fix computer glitch that threatens to compromise disability accommodation

02/24/2015
If a technology problem interferes with a disabled employee’s attempt to use medical leave, fix the problem fast. Otherwise, you may be liable for claims that you violated the ADA’s disability accommodations ­requirements.

You choose the reasonable accommodation

02/24/2015
It’s up to the employer to choose which ADA reasonable accommodation it wants to offer a disabled employee. If the worker wants a different accommodation, he’s out of luck.

USERRA: Don’t make benefits assumptions

02/24/2015

The government provides fully paid health insurance for members of the military and their families during active duty. Reservists, who aren’t always on active duty, often have insurance coverage through their employers, but that coverage usually isn’t free. It’s a bad idea for reservists to drop that coverage during deployment in favor of free military insurance.

EEOC says Walmart discriminated by denying same-sex benefits

02/23/2015
Walmart could soon face an EEOC lawsuit alleging the retail giant engaged in sex discrimination when it denied health insurance benefits to the same-sex spouse of an employee in Massachusetts.

After job-bias complaint, remind managers to keep calm & manage on

02/23/2015
While employees filed fewer charges of job discrimination in 2014 than the year before, one new statistic from the EEOC should make HR and employers stand up and take notice: More than 2 in 5 charges last year allege some form of retaliation against the employee for pursuing the discrimination claim.

$8 million price wasn’t right for game show

02/23/2015
The producers of “The Price is Right,” TV’s longest-running game show, have learned that negative comments about pregnancies can result in jackpots for employees, to the tune of more than $8 million.

Beware handing out discipline so soon after FMLA request

02/20/2015

When it comes to the FMLA, courts always pull out their stopwatches and calendars to see how closely the employee’s protected activity (requesting or taking FMLA leave) coincides with the adverse action (discipline or firing). As this case shows, the smaller the time, the bigger your risk of liability.

Unfairness isn’t illegal

02/19/2015
Judges can distinguish between an unfair boss and an illegal practice.