• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employment Law

Lessons learned from the Facebook whistleblower case

10/07/2021
Frances Haugen, a former-Facebook-employee-turned-whistleblower, stole a trove of confidential documents on her way out the door. She turned them over to the Securities and Exchange Commission, appeared on “60 Minutes” to air allegations that Facebook hid damning user research and then testified about it before a Senate committee. Is any of that legal?

Court: DOL can override arbitration agreement

10/07/2021
You may require workers to sign arbitration agreements to keep disputes over their independent contractor status out of the court system. Management-side employment lawyers have recommended that strategy for decades. However, that approach just ran into a major roadblock.

NLRB: Student-athletes may be employees

10/05/2021
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a guidance memo on Sept. 29 advising the board’s field staff that “certain” NCAA athletes “are employees under the National Labor Relations Act, and, as such, are afforded all statutory protections.”

More DEI initiatives in 2021

10/05/2021
Eighty-three percent of employers surveyed say they have been taking action on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in 2021, a 13 percentage-point increase from 2020.

Harassment settlement shows what EEOC expects

09/30/2021
The terms the EEOC decides to accept when it settles discrimination cases can help employers determine how to stay in the agency’s good graces. In addition to requiring employers to pay damages to aggrieved employees, EEOC settlements usually call for assurances the employer fixed the causes of the original complaint.

EEOC test case argues for even more telework

09/30/2021
Last year, the EEOC endorsed remote work as an effective accommodation for disabled employees with pre-existing health conditions that made them more susceptible to infection. Now the EEOC has launched a lawsuit testing the argument that telework should be an accommodation even for workers who aren’t technically disabled but are at higher risk of covid-related complications.

Ensure post-offer tests are job-related and necessary

09/23/2021
Making a job offer is a de facto acknowledgement that you believe the applicant was qualified for the position. If you make the offer contingent on passing some sort of pre-employment test, make sure the test is job-related and consistent with business necessity. Otherwise, you are courting lawsuits that likely favor applicants who fail the test.

Insist on HR approval before revoking offer

09/23/2021
As an HR professional, your role is to help your organization run well while staying out of legal trouble. Doing that means guiding hiring and firing decisions so they don’t inadvertently trigger a lawsuit. Train all your supervisors to seek your input before acting on any hiring or firing decision.

Beware associational bias arising from covid

09/16/2021
Associational discrimination is discrimination against an employee or applicant because of their association with a member of a protected class to which the employee does not belong. The consequences of covid-19 infections raise the possibility of new forms of associational discrimination and retaliation.

Spot difference between disabled and difficult

09/16/2021
Some employees are harder to manage than others. They fail to follow directions, complain about assigned tasks and gripe about general working conditions. But sometimes disabled employees do all those things, too. Make sure you know the difference.