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Employment Law

Be ready to show you hired the best candidate

01/02/2018

Unsuccessful applicants often believe they didn’t get hired because of some form of discrimination. You had better be ready to show that the person you hired was clearly better qualified. If you can do that, chances are a discrimination lawsuit will be tossed out fast.

Yes, coming to work is an essential function

01/02/2018

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, workers with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations. But once their employers have accommodated them, they still need to meet the essential functions of their jobs.

ADA: Extended leave not always reasonable

01/02/2018

Draconian workplace rules that call for automatically firing workers who run out of leave have consistently been held to violate the ADA. That may be changing, at least for employers in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Employment law by the numbers: Know which laws count

12/20/2017

Businesses must stay abreast of an alphabet soup of federal laws—ADA, ADEA, FMLA and so forth—each with its own requirements. Further complicating matters, most states have their own laws that override the federal requirements. To comply, you first must know which laws apply to your business.

The NLRB strikes back: 4 big pro-employer moves

12/18/2017
In a flurry of decisions in recent days, the National Labor Relations Board reversed years of pro-employee labor rulings that employers opposed. Business groups cheered the decisions, saying they’ll bring much-needed balance to employer-employee relationships. Three key decisions, rendered on Dec. 14 and 15, overturned a string of pro-worker, pro-union NLRB rulings. All were timed […]

Is Green & White Taxi biased against people of color?

12/18/2017

Twin Cities-based Green & White Taxi must defend against allegations by current and former drivers that the company only sends white drivers on its most lucrative jobs.

Essentia Healthcare fires 50 staff for refusing flu shots

12/18/2017

Citing the risk to patients at its 15 hospitals and 75 clinics, Essentia required employees to get vaccinated or provide documentation substantiating medical or religious objections to the inoculations.

Misclassification doesn’t matter if pay meets minimum

12/18/2017

What happens if you misclassify an independent contractor and it turns out she should have been an hourly employee? Regardless of status, you don’t have to worry about meeting a minimum wage requirement if she earned enough to average out to the minimum wage.

Next-day notification OK when need for intermittent FMLA leave wasn’t foreseeable

12/18/2017

If someone didn’t foresee the need for leave (for example, because a medical condition flared up suddenly), don’t turn them down just because they waited overnight to ask for time off.

Be careful rescinding offer after medical exam

12/18/2017

Employers that withdraw a job offer following a pre-employment medical examination risk being sued. Counter by being able to point to a specific task or set of tasks the exam showed would be impossible for the applicant to perform.