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Employment Law

DOL raises penalties for 2022

02/15/2022
The Department of Labor has announced the 2022 inflation adjustments to penalties for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the FMLA and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

No more forced arbitration of harassment claims

02/15/2022
If you ask employees to sign agreements requiring arbitration of work-related disputes or claims, call a meeting with your attorney right away. Congress just passed and President Biden is expected to sign legislation that prohibits employers from requiring arbitration of sexual harassment claims.

Beware discipline for work not done during FMLA leave

02/10/2022
When employees take FMLA leave, sometimes their employers just let the work pile up, to be completed when the employee returns. That can be dangerous if the employee can’t catch up and is punished.

Never manipulate pay or hours to avoid OT

02/10/2022
Tempted to play loose with the overtime rules to save money on labor? Bad idea. You will attract the Department of Labor’s attention.

EFCA rises again in House bill, but will it survive conference?

02/08/2022
Pro-union measures that were once part of the dreaded, never-enacted Employee Free Choice Act made it into the final version of the America COMPETES Act of 2022 that passed in the House of Representatives on Feb. 4.

No, you cannot require at-will employees to stay

02/03/2022
Employment at-will means employers and employees alike are free to end the employment relationship at any time for any reason, or even no reason at all. One employer recently got lost on that two-way street.

Train bosses: No gender stereotypes at work

02/03/2022
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that work rules based on stereotypes of how a woman should look and behave at work amounted to sex discrimination under Title VII. In 2020, the court expanded that protection to include stereotypes related to sexual orientation and transgender status.

Unionization: Avoid Amazon’s labor mistakes

02/03/2022
Employers need to get up to speed now on how to respond to the threat of union organizing. Perhaps no organization provides better lessons on how not to respond than retail giant Amazon.

Let FLSA guide policy on pay for vaccinations

02/03/2022
OSHA’s vaccinate-or-test mandate is gone, but confusion remains for employers with their own vax policies wondering whether they must pay employees for time they spend getting covid shots.

Beware liability from ‘equal opportunity harasser’

01/27/2022
Because unlawful harassment must be aimed at a person who belongs to a protected class—based on race or sex, for example—“equal opportunity harassers” may be able to target all kinds of people without creating liability for their employers. But that may be about to change, thanks to a just-filed EEOC lawsuit.