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Employment Law

100%-healed policy = $950,000 settlement

05/31/2019
Do you have a policy requiring injured workers to be 100% healed before they can return to work? Do you automatically terminate workers who try to come back with medical restrictions or who say they need more time off? Then get ready to write a big check.

Administration’s employment law agenda priorities revealed

05/29/2019
The Trump administration’s Spring Regulatory Agenda—essentially the government’s policy to-do list—lays out an array of goals affecting employment law.

Using staffing firm won’t let you off the hook

05/23/2019
Some employers believe buying labor through a staffing or temp agency can insulate them from legal liability. They’re wrong! In fact, both the staffing company and its client may get caught up in litigation over alleged discrimination.

Democrats mount effort to roll back anti-union initiatives

05/21/2019
A bill introduced by House Democrats in early May would outlaw state legislation that lets employees in unionized workplaces opt out of paying union dues.

‘Equality Act’ would make anti-gay discrimination unlawful

05/21/2019
Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity would be a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if legislation that passed May 17 in the House of Representatives becomes law.

DOL, NLRB decide: Gig workers are contractors

05/21/2019
Two recent federal government decisions make it clear: Gig economy workers such as Uber drivers and online app-enabled repair persons face an uphill battle in the fight to be recognized as employees and gain all the rights employees enjoy.

Ignoring interactive process pops Party City’s balloons

05/16/2019
When a team leader at a Party City store in Texas suffered pregnancy complications, her doctor imposed a lifting restriction. But rather than discuss possible workplace accommodations, the store fired her.

New risk: EEOC now suing over small claims

05/16/2019
Employers haven’t worried as much about being sued by the EEOC in smaller, less unique cases in which workers had to rely on finding an attorney willing to take their case. But that’s all changing.

NLRB: Bathroom chat isn’t ‘protected’ activity

05/14/2019
Even in nonunion workplaces, the National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of employees to engage in “concerted activity” that aims to benefit their job-related mutual aid or protection. But does that protection cover two workers who are overheard complaining about clients in a bathroom? Apparently not.

Provide breaks for nursing mothers: DOL punishing violators of ACA rule

05/14/2019
The Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide milk-expression breaks for new mothers and a private place that is not a bathroom. The U.S. Department of Labor is going after employers that don’t comply.