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In yet another decision that reverses an Obama-era policy, the National Labor and Relations Board (NLRB) determined that employers can regulate their employees’ use of company email and other IT resources for non-work-related communications. Previously, Board held that employees with access to these resources for work had a presumptive right to use them on nonworking […]
Five compliance issues to watch for in 2020.
Last month, we looked at how to avoid inappropriate topics during an employment interview. But often, discrimination in hiring is less overt than a direct question. And employers must ensure that the entire hiring process is truly fair. I recently completed a continuing education class on implicit bias and would like to share some insights […]
Job interviews are a fact of life for employers. They are also minefields, full of potential violations of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) laws that protect job candidates and employees from discrimination. Some interview questions and topics obviously are discriminatory — How old are you? Do you plan to have children? — and employers know to […]
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has not often enacted rules pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, preferring that the Board’s legislative policies be established in individualized rulings. But recent actions indicate a break with that tradition. Earlier this month, the Board proposed regulations targeting three areas of current policy that govern the filing and […]
Patrick Pizzella takes the reins as acting Secretary of Labor following Alexander Acosta’s resignation over a 2008 plea deal he arranged for Jeffery Epstein. Pizzella has been deputy secretary just over a year and held various positions related to labor policy during two previous administrations. While Acosta was cautious about too-quickly reversing Obama-era policies that favored workers […]
In a ruling earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court found that Title VII’s exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement is a mandatory claim-processing rule rather than jurisdictional, settling a long-standing disagreement among appellate courts. The need for the clarification stems from a general rule that a federal discrimination claim should be dismissed unless a timely […]
Supreme Court agrees to consider LGBT discrimination in the workplace As mentioned in a prior post, the Supreme Court of the United States will soon resolve uncertainty as to whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. In the first two consolidated cases, Altitude Express Inc. v. […]
After several years of starts and stops, the Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposal to update the overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As we reported earlier, the DOL— during the Obama administration — raised the minimum salary threshold for exemption from overtime to $47,476 per year. Early in the Trump […]
As the year progresses, legal questions and cases regarding noncompete law should prove interesting. In recent years, the trend has been toward limiting noncompete agreements in favor of allowing employee mobility. This year promises challenges on both sides of the issue. Here are a few that we’re watching, as reported by Law360. Anti-Poaching Litigation The […]
