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Employment Law

High Court: Only 3 cases affected employers

06/29/2021
No case in this term rose to the level of last year’s Bostock v. Clayton County, a blockbuster decision that said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because they are gay or transgender. However, these cases matter to employers.

Employees’ biometric data in the workplace: the legal do’s and don’ts

06/24/2021
Fingerprint scans for time cards … temperature screening for COVID … retina scans for security access. These increasingly common examples of biometric data also carry risks that employers should learn to mitigate.

Visit field operations to detect harassment, bias

06/24/2021
If your organization has far-flung operations, get out of HQ and into the field as often as you can. Unannounced inspections are the best way to spot harassment and discrimination that could result in huge penalties.

Advice to ‘put on big girl panties’ backfires

06/24/2021
When fielding a workplace harassment complaint, it may be tempting to suggest the alleged victim try to resolve the matter herself instead of filing a full-blown complaint with HR. That’s a terrible idea.

Warn interviewers not to ask loaded questions

06/24/2021
Train hiring managers to avoid asking intrusive, irrelevant and potentially illegal questions during job interviews. Loaded questions can spur a lawsuit if the candidate isn’t hired—and jurors may conclude the questions are smoking-gun evidence that proves discrimination.

Prepare to accommodate covid after-effects

06/24/2021
Most people recover from covid-19 within a few weeks. However, reasonably large numbers of people who had the disease experience after-effects that may interfere with their ability to work. As a result, employers can expect to see more requests for ADA reasonable accommodations and FMLA intermittent leave.

Report: Wage gaps between races continue to widen

06/22/2021
Wage disparities between Black and White workers have increased in the last 10 years, even for people with otherwise comparable backgrounds and qualifications, according to a new study by The Conference Board business research organization.

DOL proposes new rule on tipped worker pay

06/22/2021
The Department of Labor has floated a rule that would limit the amount of non-tip-producing work that a tipped employee can perform when an employer takes a tip credit.

Be alert to new legal risk: vaccine-status harassment

06/17/2021
Harassing a co-worker because of his or her unvaccinated status might cross the line into unlawful protected-class harassment. In that case, an employer might have honest-to-goodness liability for allowing such harassment to continue uncorrected.

Paycheck Fairness Act stalls, lacking Senate votes

06/17/2021
Legislation that would amend the Equal Pay Act to make it easier to sue for sex-based pay discrimination won’t become law this year, failing to win the backing of 60 senators necessary to overcome a filibuster.