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Employment Law

How to accommodate employees who suffer from migraines

06/21/2023
Headaches are one of the most commonly experienced medical conditions. In fact, more than 80% of adults will experience tension headaches from time to time. They’re easily treatable with over-the-counter medications. But about 12% of Americans suffer from a far more debilitating and hard-to-treat condition: migraine headaches. Here’s your guide to accommodating workers who suffer from migraines.

They didn’t seriously argue that, did they? Religion in the kitchen stirs the DOL to action

06/21/2023
Religion in the workplace is a touchy matter. What if your boss brought in a priest and encouraged everyone to confess their sins? What if you weren’t Catholic? It’s not a hypothetical question. An employee of a California restaurant testified that his employer brought in a person identified as a priest to hear their confessions during work hours.

NLRB ruling: Weigh context when punishing employee for angry outbursts

06/21/2023
The National Labor Relations Act, which is administered by the National Labor Relations Board, protects employees’ right to form and join a labor union and engage in so-called concerted activities to improve working conditions. Recently, the NLRB ruled that occasional angry outbursts—even if offensive enough to potentially create a hostile environment under Title VII—are protected activity under the NLRA.

Pregnant employee? You’re not their doctor and you don’t know what’s best for her!

06/21/2023
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act takes effect June 27. In the run-up to that date, the EEOC has begun filing pregnancy-discrimination lawsuits at a rapid clip. For example, it just sued a bar over allegations that managers adopted a paternalistic approach to pregnancy, resulting in the firing of a pregnant bartender.

Case of the Week: OK to ask about basis for religious-accommodation request

06/15/2023
A series of Supreme Court decisions have protected beliefs that are theistic in nature—that is, they include a belief in God as defined in major world religions and their variants. But other decisions hold that non-theistic moral or ethical beliefs sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious beliefs are also entitled to reasonable accommodation.

New overtime rule pushed back to August as Su’s labor secretary nomination stalls

06/15/2023
The wait continues for the Department of Labor to release its much-delayed final overtime rule. A June 14 notice by the federal Office of Management and Budget said the rule won’t be published before August.

Avoid retaliation lawsuits with these 4 best practices

06/15/2023
Retaliation claims brought by unhappy employees—or really, really unhappy former employees—continue to trouble employers nationwide. Here are four recommendations for setting up systems that can help prevent retaliation claims in the first place and—acknowledging that no system can prevent all such claims—at least help the organization establish and prove possible defenses to claims of retaliation that do arise.

DOL wins largest FLSA verdict ever! $22 million for unpaid showers

06/12/2023
The Department of Labor has just won the largest Fair Labor Standards Act verdict in its history. A jury awarded a group of workers $22 million for the time they spend showering after their work shifts.

Court: Hip-hop on work PA can be harassment

06/12/2023
A federal appeals court has ruled that blasting “sexually graphic, violently misogynistic” music over a Nevada warehouse’s public address system “almost daily” for two years created a hostile work environment.

Case of the Week: Revoking remote work privilege isn’t basis for lawsuit

06/09/2023
Employees who sue their employers for retaliation must prove that they experienced an adverse employment action. Being fired, demoted or transferred to a different location with lower pay generally qualify as adverse. But minor changes that don’t include lower pay, lost benefits or substantially different duties and responsibilities aren’t enough to justify a lawsuit.