Black History Month is a good time to engage in introspection and self-review. As employers, most of you are conscious of your legal liability when it comes to equal employment opportunity. But many of you also have...
Employment Law Letter
The year 2020 was a year of unpredictable challenges for our nation, as our personal lives turned upside down trying to adjust to living with a pandemic, social unrest, and working from home. This chaos left HR leaders...
On March 22, 2021, with the confirmation of Marty Walsh as secretary of labor, all but one of President Joe Biden's cabinet will have been confirmed by the Senate. Only the head of the Office of Management and Budget...
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) will have "unique and powerful" authority to address systemic racism and pay discrimination and...
New Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Chair Charlotte Burrows in recent interviews indicated the commission might revive the long-delayed sexual harassment guidance it approved during the last days of the...
Probably no phrase has had more influence on the course of contemporary American politics than Ronald Reagan’s pronouncement that “the government is not the solution to our problem; the government is the problem.” It was...
President Joe Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Executive Order 13999 on worker health and safety to issue a temporary emergency standard on COVID-19 by March 15, 2021. The agency...
On March 8, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Gender Policy Council (https://bit.ly/3cLJyPe). The council, which will report directly to the president, is expected to play a...
In early March, the Biden administration formally withdrew the frozen independent contractor regulation and the judicially rejected joint employer regulation, clearly indicating that new positions would be forthcoming...
In early January 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced it had sent notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs) on wellness programs under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic...
The events leading up to and occurring on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol Building and in several state capitals raise questions about your rights to hold employees accountable for their political expression and...
Within hours of his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” The order...
Many have said the workplace tends to be society’s battlefield, where culture wars play out and emerging trends go up against long-established practices. The notion certainly holds true for the controversial issue of...
Q One of our remote employees had what appeared to be a seizure during a company Zoom call. Even though he insists he is fine, we are very concerned about his wellbeing. Can we ask him to complete a fitness-for-duty...
Q Our employment applications are available in English. If an applicant applies in a language other than English and our recruiters cannot read the responses, what do we do with the application? Are we able to disqualify...