Author: California Employment Law Letter

Top 10 employer mistakes in accommodating disabled employees

by Matthew A. Goodin Even experienced HR professionals have a difficult time with requests for reasonable accommodation from disabled employees. This process is even trickier if the employee needs a leave of absence as an accommodation because of the intersection of different laws that govern leaves of absence. Below are some of the most common […]

Stage is set for SCOTUS to rule on Title VII and sexual orientation

by Ryan B. Frazier Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, state and federal laws have been enacted to prohibit employment discrimination against individuals on the basis of their race, ethnicity, age, disability, religion, and gender. Until recently, virtually none of those antidiscrimination laws covered employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. […]

What should you do when employees are addicted to prescription drugs?

by Jonathan R. Mook, DimuroGinsberg, PC Addiction to prescription drugs, especially opioids, has become a crisis in this country. Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about the mounting number of shattered lives and tragic deaths attributed to this growing epidemic. Employers are feeling the brunt of the crisis as employees are increasingly […]

Time running out to comment on long-stalled overtime rule

Employers and others have until September 25 to submit comments to shape the rule governing which workers are eligible for overtime pay. Once the deadline passes, employers will face a waiting game before learning what changes may be in store. In late July, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced it was soliciting comments through […]

immigration

Employers need to make preparations as DACA sunset nears

President Donald Trump’s announcement of an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has prompted uncertainty not only for those benefiting from the program but also for their employers.  The program has benefitted an estimated 800,000 young people, known as Dreamers—undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Many of those […]

Train ’em up

If you’re a poor soul who’s followed enough of my posts to spot patterns, you’ll spot one here. Maybe I’m a broken record, maybe I’m simple-minded, or maybe I really like baseball.  Baseball speaks to me. The U.S. is still a blip in the long course of human history. We cobbled together our identity from […]

Invisible battle against postpartum depression: Survivor speaks up

Note from Dan Oswald: The following, shared by Elizabeth Petersen, who is president of Simplify Compliance’s healthcare division, is a highly personal story about a struggle she faced. I believe her willingness to share it shows courage on her part. It contains a great lesson for all of us. There are certain subjects that I, […]

Nobody’s perfect: Unconscious bias at work

by Lisa Chapman Royse Law Firm, PC Whether you work in an office or not, you should care about harassment in the workplace. It can be verbal or nonverbal, and the perpetrators often aren’t fully aware of the negative implications behind their words or actions. Whether we’re on the receiving end of the harassment or […]

Need to boost productivity? Go to war against workplace distractions

Ever stop to consider just what your employees do all day? If they’re like a lot of today’s workers, they’re fitting in their core work around a host of distractions and interruptions.  A Harvard Business Review report from March 7, 2016, cites a study showing that the average worker checks email 74 times a day. […]