The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia employers) recently issued a decision involving a former employee's disability discrimination claim that...
Employment Law Letter
Two union-backed bills designed to protect hospitality workers in Baltimore took effect on December 7, 2020, after the city council voted to override outgoing Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young’s vetoes. What new laws require...
About a year ago, we wrote about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids of Mississippi poultry processors, resulting in hundreds of suspected undocumented workers being removed from the worksites (see Despite...
The 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which became law in late December, extended a federal tax credit for employers that choose to continue providing leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)...
The first time I heard the term "sex addiction" was in 2010, when Tiger Woods told the public he would be stepping away from the PGA Tour to attend rehab. The announcement shook the sports world and sparked a...
Be ready for major changes to national labor policy when President- elect Joe Biden enters the Oval Office. The changes will likely aim to increase union membership by (1) facilitating organizing, (2) shortening election...
From when they will be widely available in the United States to where you may fall in the priority line, COVID-19 vaccines are dominating the news cycle right now. Unsurprisingly, a common question from employers has...
Q Our company wants to implement a policy to limit personal cell phone usage only to break times. Can we ask workers to put their phones in their work lockers or on their supervisors desks? Yes, you may either require or...
On December 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance on quarantining: In certain circumstances, individuals potentially exposed to COVID-19 by being in "close contact" with a person who...
An employer should have bargained with a union over the effects of its decision to require employees to complete new I-9 forms, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge (ALJ) recently ruled. The...
Q Are there restrictions on disclosing internally the reason for an employee's leave of absence if we use a high-level reason? The reasons we use in our HR software include "employee health condition," "baby bonding,"...
The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently issued two opinion letters addressing when travel time and training time are considered compensable hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards...
Workers' compensation has gotten a lot of attention this year because of, you guessed it, the COVID-19 pandemic. But like everything else, the virus has overshadowed an important decision recently issued by the Illinois...
Ohio's 8th Appellate District enforced a six-month contractual statute of limitations that began to run when the allegedly unlawful adverse employment actions occurred, even though the employee remained employed for...
A new rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fills in many details of the Biden administration’s plan to get some 84 million employees around the country vaccinated against COVID-19. The rule...