Employment Law

Almost all OFCCP enforcement staff placed on leave

05/05/2025

Most employees who handle enforcement at the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs have been placed on administrative leave, according to Bloomberg Law. The move affected employees in OFCCP’s national office in Washington, D.C. and five of six regional offices across the country.

Cure intermittent leave headaches by relying on FMLA certification

05/05/2025

Unfortunately, intermittent FMLA leave is easy for employees to abuse. Fortunately, the FMLA certification documentation that employees must provide is the key to easing the HR headaches that intermittent leave often causes.

Be better! Anti-harassment training, half-hearted investigations aren’t enough

05/02/2025

Why aren’t anti-harassment policies more effective at preventing harassment? The answer may lie in ineffective training and the failure of employers to follow their own policies.

Executive order directs EEOC, other agencies to ‘deprioritize’ disparate-impact discrimination

04/28/2025

The order, issued April 23 and titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy,” contends that the threat of being sued for disparate-impact discrimination prevents employers from hiring the best-qualified candidates, promoting successful employees and generally running their businesses as they see fit.

Be prepared to offer non-traditional ADA accommodations

04/28/2025

We usually think of ADA accommodations as those that allow employees to perform the essential functions of their jobs. Other forms of ADA accommodation don’t directly affect essential job functions. Instead, they help employees manage their disabilities.

Understand marijuana laws in every jurisdiction where you operate

04/25/2025

Employers can require employees accused of violence at work to take a drug test. But what happens if the test reveals the presence of marijuana in the system of an employee whose use of medical marijuana is authorized by state law?

Discipline consistently to avoid reverse-discrimination lawsuits

04/25/2025

There’s a simple way to avoid many kinds of reverse-discrimination lawsuits: Treat everyone alike. That means making sure supervisors apply work rules impartially and without exception unless there is an objective reason discipline should differ.

Federal contractors no longer have to promise their restrooms aren’t segregated

04/21/2025

A letter from the U.S. General Services Administration’s Office of Government-wide Acquisition Policy notes that White House Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, rescinded a 1965 executive order that required contractors to end the practice of maintaining separate restrooms for white and minority employees.

4 Big Law firms settle with EEOC to end scrutiny of DEI programs

04/21/2025

Four of the world’s largest law firms have entered into settlement agreements with the EEOC promising that their diversity, equity and inclusion practices do not result in unlawful discrimination or preferences based on race, sex or other protected characteristics. In return for settling, the EEOC agreed not to investigate the firms for allegedly discriminatory practices.

Court: Simply offering DEI program doesn’t establish hostile environment

04/18/2025

The mere existence of a DEI program doesn’t establish a hostile environment if an employee wasn’t singled out or personally affected.