We have previously noted the COVID-19 pandemic will create novel legal questions for employers, most of which are yet to be answered. Although workers’ compensation is generally the exclusive remedy for workplace...
Employment Law Letter
For the last half-century, California courts have struggled with the question of when, if ever, a public employer can change retirement benefit plans for current employees. For many years, urban legend held that under...
After years of dithering, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Texas) recently decided a single racial slur (one in particular) standing alone can create an unlawful hostile work environment entitling the...
Q An employee whose work hours are based on nine-hour days (45 hours per week) is on parental leave. Would their Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave end when they reach 480 hours or 12 weeks (which would be 540...
The New York City Human Rights Commission (NYCHRC) recently released guidance about the city’s new law requiring “salary transparency” in job advertisements for employees, interns, domestic workers, and some independent...
New York tabloids recently reported on the plight of a New York City (NYC) employee who was promptly terminated after protesting Mayor Eric Adam’s COVID-19 masking policies that affected her son and other tykes. Can she...
Q When does leave to care for an adult child fall under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? A Generally speaking, an employee may not take FMLA leave to care for a child who is 18 years of age or older, but there is...
A very recent opinion from the federal court of appeals covering Texas expands the scope of hostile work environment claims. It provides several lessons to Texas employers. Nude video of employee circulates at work Yes...
Both HR professionals as well as lawyers ask me what they should read to move their careers forward. My counsel: Harvard Business Review (HBR), which is chock-full of actionable advice on business, communication, and...
A recent lawsuit in San Antonio mixes all the elements of a potboiler novel: an executive lured to a competitor, trade secrets allegedly disclosed, lawsuits galore. The plot, however, is as old as time. Staffing wars...
Q When does leave to care for an adult child fall under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? A Leave to care for an adult child falls under the FMLA when the individual has a serious health condition rendering him...
An employee’s refusal to provide her password to a work-related computer program was enough to overcome her national origin discrimination claim, according to a recent ruling from the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals...
By its nature, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) contains features that appear in no other antidiscrimination law. While laws banning discrimination based on race, sex, age, and the like generally require equal...
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) contains some of the most stringent requirements in the nation for protecting individuals’ personal identifiers such as fingerprints. Employers that use the...
Lusardi v. Xerox Corp. provides the widely used framework for the two-step conditional certification process under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This process is now under review by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of...