For decades, standardized testing has been subject to attack for discriminatory bias and adverse impact against protected classes. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) 1978 Uniform Guidelines on Employee...
Employment Law Letter
Readers of this column know that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created to reflect the politics of the incumbent president. Each board member has staggered five-year terms, so every president gets to...
It’s been almost 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that a hostile work environment can constitute sex discrimination and sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal...
Arbitration clauses offer a private and often speedy forum in which to resolve employment disputes. Given that many courts are still backlogged from the COVID-19 pandemic, and because legal proceedings have become part...
As summer heats up, employers should keep a close eye on how heat affects their workforce. Heat-related illness is a hot topic for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as well as state OSHA...
When you see the packages of strawberries in the produce department, you probably don’t consider whose employees grew, packaged, and shipped them. The court of appeal recently had to consider whether farmworkers work for...
Basic doctrines of fairness generally prevent the introduction of evidence of misconduct that is unconnected to the accusations made in a lawsuit. Evidence of old episodes of misconduct often fall into that category. Was...
California’s Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) statute is intended to curtail lawsuits brought primarily to chill the rights of petition or free speech under the United States or California...
On April 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case involving a former U.S. Postal Service (USPS) worker who was denied a religious accommodation to observe his sabbath. The broad implications of a...
On May 1, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reversed a 2020 decision that made it easier to discipline workers for inappropriate or offensive outbursts while engaging in activities protected by the National...
Some employers offer severance agreements to employees when they’re discharged, waiving employees’ rights to potential employment claims in exchange for a few weeks’ or months’ salary. Many agreements also include broad...
At the Dentons Davis Brown annual labor and employment law seminar in April, employers discussed many topics that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic or were preexisting but were exacerbated by it. One such issue is...
The fundamental premise of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is that all employees are covered by its base requirements. This includes being paid minimum wage for every hour worked and time and one-half for all...
All U.S. employers are required to complete Form I-9 for employees hired to work in the United States. This form serves to verify an employee’s identity and ability to work in the country. Within 72 hours of hire...
Q: Our employee owes us money and has told us she wants the value of her paid time off (PTO) applied to her repayment obligations. Can we do this? What is required to pull the money from her paycheck? The answer to the...