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Employment Law

Think creatively about how to comply with PUMP Act milk-expression requirements

12/20/2023
Many employers still struggle with how to provide the required breast-milk expression breaks required by the year-old Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act. PUMP Act compliance is especially challenging in unusual work environments. However, a recent lawsuit settlement involving an airline addresses best practices employers can adopt even in difficult circumstances.

Use blind résumé screening process to reduce liability for discrimination in hiring

12/20/2023
Every applicant you ever rejected could decide to sue for some form of discrimination. Make that less likely by using a blind screening process to sort through applications and résumés.

Post-Groff, a perfect illustration of religious accommodation

12/19/2023
If you’re going to claim an undue hardship to deny an employees’ religious accommodation request, you best have your Groff v. DeJoy ducks in a row … and by ducks, I mean empirical evidence of actual costs that substantially and negatively affect your entire business.

Help employees who are experiencing infertility and pregnancy loss

12/19/2023
There’s a good chance at least some of your employees may need accommodations as well as leave as they attempt to conceive, remain pregnant or deliver a child.

Holiday party triggers sexual hijinks? Beware harassment afterward

12/15/2023
Workplace romances or plain old carnal excess can have an adverse effect on the morale of other employees. For example, what happens when co-workers report out-of-control holiday hijinks to management? And what if the co-workers caught in flagrante delicto exact revenge on the tattletales? It just might amount to illegal retaliation.

House Republicans condemn overtime rule

12/11/2023
The title was a tip-off. When the U.S. House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections met to address the Department of Labor’s proposed overtime rule, the Nov. 29 hearing was titled “Bad for Business: DOL’s Proposed Overtime Rule.”

New OT rule to be finalized in April

12/11/2023
If enacted, the rule would raise the white-collar overtime salary threshold to $55,068 per year, up from the current level of $35,568. An April 1 date for publishing the final rule would push back implementation until June at the earliest.

Wage & hour: Heed DOL’s $12 million warning to the hospitality industry

12/11/2023
The Department of Labor has been targeting restaurants and other hospitality-industry employers for aggressive enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act. It has issued fines and penalties and ordered restaurants to shut down until they pay up. That’s a powerful incentive for employers to settle lawsuits.

When high-level harassment erupts, act fast to prevent even worse legal trouble

12/08/2023
Here’s a cautionary tale that offers an inevitable lesson: When a supervisor’s harassment spills out into the greater workplace, the claims will grow exponentially.

Lock her up! Defy DOL investigators, go to jail

12/04/2023
A federal court has ordered the owner of a Michigan senior home-care services company to go to prison if she continues to ignore a March 2023 order to provide U.S. Department of Labor investigators with time and pay records.