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Employment Law

Beware medical inquiries before making job offer

03/24/2022
When hiring, asking the wrong question can be an expensive mistake. In one recent case, a worker who wasn’t even looking for a job walked away with a $75,000 payday because of a prospective employer’s ill-conceived question.

Investigate all bystander harassment reports

03/24/2022
The EEOC believes one of the best ways to stop managerial sexual harassment is to encourage bystander reporting. Ignoring a bystander’s harassment report is practically asking for a lawsuit.

CROWN Act would ban bias on basis of hairstyles

03/24/2022
The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would prohibit workplace discrimination against employees on the basis of hair texture or hairstyles commonly associated with a particular race, ethnicity or national origin.

EEOC warns against caregiver stereotyping

03/24/2022
The EEOC has issued new guidance that warns against making assumptions based on the possibility that an applicant or employee might one day have to take time off to assume a caregiving role. The EEOC guidance offers these scenarios as examples of situations that could create employer liability.

Illegal harassment vs. legal (but still wrong) bullying

03/17/2022
Nate’s mistreatment of Will in Season 2 of the hit TV show Ted Lasso is uncomfortable to watch and horrendous management. But is it illegal? The answer is no.

Shields up! Feds warn of Russian cyberattacks

03/17/2022
As the world tightens its economic grip on Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion, tech experts are citing heavier-than-usual cyberattacks on small and mid-sized U.S. businesses that are originating in Russia and China.

War puts national origin bias in the spotlight

03/17/2022
After 9/11, workplace harassment of Muslims increased in the United States. During COVID, the EEOC reported a spike in discrimination against workers of Asian descent. Now legal experts are warning that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing some Russian-American employees in this country—and even simply employees with Eastern European accents—to be harassed and discriminated against based on their national origin.

Workers can’t sign away their rights to overtime

03/17/2022
A California home care agency was ordered last month to pay $315,000 in unpaid overtime to 158 workers. The owner unlawfully required hourly workers to sign an agreement to be paid straight time for each pay period.

Jury finds discrimination, but awards no damages

03/17/2022
It always pays to document poor performance in detail and contemporaneously. If you ultimately need to terminate the employee, you will have the backup you need to justify your decision, even if the employee claims that you somehow discriminated against him.

Disabled new hire? Prepare to grant time off

03/17/2022
If a new employee reveals what may be a disability and asks for time off, you have to consider that request as you would any other request for a reasonable accommodation. That’s true even if the request comes shortly after you make the job offer.