Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The brief answer to that question is “It depends.” The legality of no-recording policies is relatively a hot-button issue that has been addressed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the U.S. 2nd and 5th Circuit Courts of Appeal.
We all understand that filing a discrimination charge with a government agency is protected activity, but one employee recently claimed that withdrawing such a charge is also protected. Read on to see how the court responded to that novel approach.
Although a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on who qualifies for whistleblower protection is seen as a win for corporations in some circles, employers need to think carefully before taking action against employees who engage in whistleblowing, according to an attorney who has been watching the case.
What if I told you that the California Supreme Court has ruled that under certain circumstances, an employee being exposed to lewd conduct in the workplace – including sexual discussions, sexually explicit pictures, and colleagues pantomiming masturbation – is not enough to sustain an actionable sexual harassment claim? In light of the recent spate of […]
By the way, the amount of attorneys’ fees in the headline is not the amount the employer paid its lawyers. Oh, no—that’s the amount it had to pay the employee’s lawyers for suing to recover the $608 in unpaid overtime. To make the disparity even stranger, the employee lost two of his three claims at […]
HR professionals are all too familiar with the McDonnell-Douglas burden-shifting standard for establishing discrimination from circumstantial evidence. Under the standard, an employee presents a prima facie (minimally sufficient) case that he belongs to a protected class and suffered an adverse action. The employer then presents a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for its action, and he in […]
With new headlines seeming to pop up daily as the courts and Congress address the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, employers have their hands full keeping track of how the national immigration debate affects their workers.
Back in March, I wrote about the revival of Will & Grace, though we all know it is really the Jack & Karen show. Over the years, we have seen the softer side of Karen Walker, which lies far (really far) below the surface of her martini-swilling, insult-slinging, pill-popping, Botox veneer. In the series revival, […]
Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit—which covers Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island—held that an arbitration agreement between a company and a vendor wasn’t enforceable against one of the vendor’s delivery drivers who didn’t have notice of the agreement. The court’s ruling is a reminder that companies seeking to […]
Recently, a panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals—which covers Alabama, Florida, and Georgia—reversed an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) discrimination matter and sent it back for further proceedings to the district court that had dismissed it before trial.