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Employment Law

NLRB numbers rising for election petitions, unfair labor charges

07/19/2022
Union representation petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board have increased 56% during the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2022.

Revisit covid testing in light of EEOC moves

07/19/2022
Now that the coronavirus pandemic is well into its third year, it may be time for employers to revisit their policies and practices on testing employees for covid-19 infections. New legal roadblocks to testing have emerged and new EEOC guidance has made compliance more difficult.

You can’t discriminate based on type of citizenship

07/14/2022
Employers cannot discriminate against citizens, legal immigrants and others with valid work visas on the basis of their national origin. The EEOC has made it clear that the type of citizenship an applicant holds can’t be used as a reason not to hire. That, too, would amount to national-origin discrimination.

Court: Faith allows skipping preferred pronouns

07/14/2022
A worker whose gender identity differs from that assigned at birth can insist on being addressed by his or her preferred pronouns. At the same time, a co-worker whose sincerely held religious beliefs reject the concept of transgenderism might object on religious grounds to having to use those preferred pronouns.

Price of an illegal gag order: $3.12 million

07/14/2022
Employers can’t interfere with workers’ right to engage in concerted activity aimed at improving working conditions. For example, you can’t have a handbook policy or work rule that threatens discipline for employees who talk to reporters. A recent seven-figure settlement shows how expensive having and enforcing such a rule can be.

The complete guide to state employment law 2022

07/08/2022
HR Specialist Premium Plus Subscribers can now access our free, newly updated 700+ page annual report covering employment laws for all 50 states.

Prepare to prove hardship of accommodating religion

07/07/2022
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would create an undue burden on business operations. That means employers that reject a religious accommodation request must be prepared to demonstrate exactly how it would have created an undue hardship.

Monitoring remote workers can backfire

07/07/2022
Managers trying to electronically monitor their remote employees might want to rethink their snooping strategy. Even as online searches for “how to monitor employees working from home” have increased dramatically since the pandemic began, being Big Brother can backfire.

Supreme Court upholds USERRA protections

07/07/2022
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states and other government employers can be sued under a federal law that protects employees who are serving or have served in the military from discrimination.

NLRB expands penalties for labor violations

07/07/2022
The National Labor Relations Board has grown bolder in coming up with new penalties to slap on employers it finds guilty of committing unfair labor practices. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo recently sent out a memo summarizing the board’s new approach.