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

Employment Law

Be sure to document the reasonable factors on which you base all hiring decisions

06/13/2024
Courts rarely second-guess hiring decisions as long as they are based on objective, reasonable factors, backed with documentation.

Beware the sweeping power of that other federal agency: The NLRB

06/03/2024
The NLRB doesn’t have to file lawsuits to force compliance. In fact, it manages its entire enforcement process by itself. It investigates and gathers information, determines whether a violation occurred and, if so, decides on the punishment. The NLRB is, in effect, the judge, jury and executioner of unfair labor practices cases.

PWFA and the ADA: How accommodations may differ

05/31/2024
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act entitles pregnant workers to reasonable accommodations before, during and after pregnancy. These can run the gamut from simple deviations from common workplace rules to granting leave so a new mother can recover from childbirth. PWFA accommodations potentially go far beyond what’s required under the ADA’s reasonable accommodations provisions.

SHRM: HR opposes FTC’s ban on noncompetes

05/31/2024
The Society for Human Resource Management has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the Federal Trade Commission’s blanket prohibition on noncompete agreements.

EEOC updates guidance on hostile work environments

05/30/2024
For the five fiscal years ending with FY 2023, more than one-third of the charges of employment discrimination it received included an allegation of unlawful harassment based on race, sex, disability or another protected characteristic.

Court: Your policy can require employees to keep ‘spy cams’ turned on

05/28/2024
A federal court has upheld an employer’s handbook rule requiring full-time camera monitoring of employees. The ruling is a victory for employers who want to track the behavior of employees they can’t directly observe.

EEOC damage awards fell dramatically in FY 2023

05/28/2024
Employers paid $22.6 million in monetary damages for violating federal anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws in fiscal year 2023, according to EEOC statistics released in May.

EEOC charges jump for second straight year

05/28/2024
Employees filed 81,055 discrimination and harassment charges in FY 2023, compared to 73,485 the year before and 61,331 in FY 2021, a year in which EEOC activity lagged because of COVID lockdowns.

Employer groups sue to block DOL’s new overtime rule

05/24/2024
A coalition of trade associations has filed a sweeping lawsuit asking a federal court in Texas to postpone the rule’s July 1 effective date, stop the rule from taking effect and forbid the DOL from “taking any action whatsoever” to implement the rule.

Biden vetoes resolution blocking NLRB joint-employer rule

05/20/2024
The rule would have made it easier for workers filing unfair labor practices charges to claim they work for more than one employer.