The Employer Handbook

• newSometimes you can favor women over men for a job; other times it’ll cost you $41,000
  Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/softball-baseball-ball-sport-game-372979/) We’re talkin’ softball. [cue music] Recently, I read about an EEOC settlement with a Maryland school that forked over $41,000 to settle a gender-discrimi…
  - 16 hours ago, 20 Feb 19, 11:30am -
• newWill this time be the charm for some workplace bills recently reintroduced in Congress?
  David Maiolo [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsThere are a couple of new(ish) workplace bills pending in Congress. Would you like to hear more about them? Paycheck Fairness Act Late last month, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Paycheck F…
  - 2 days ago, 19 Feb 19, 11:30am -
• newThe Henry Pratt Co. tragedy and six ways employers can avoid gun violence in the workplace
  Image Credit: Google Street View According to multiple news reports, on Friday, shortly after the Henry Pratt Company communicated to a 15-year employee that the company was ending his employment, he began shooting. All told, he killed five employees…
  - 3 days ago, 18 Feb 19, 11:30am -

Ohio Employer's Law Blog

• NBC News takes the unprecedented step to release its internal Matt Lauer harassment report
  Image by Max Goldberg via Wiki CommonsYesterday morning, NBC News released the complete report into its months long investigation of Matt Lauer.I was astounded by NBC’s transparency. It is extraordinarily rare for a private company…
  - 10 May 18, 11:21am -
• Sympathetic does not always equal protected under the ADA
  Photo by Pexels on PixabayToday’s opinion is a lesson straight out of the school of hard knocks. No matter how sympathetic the plaintiff or how harrowing his plights, the law is the law and sometimes it’s just not on his side.When…
  - 9 May 18, 11:34am -
• Should employers still test for marijuana?
  Photo by Michael Fischer from PexelsOhio’s medical marijuana program is set to be fully operational by September 2018. Ohio will join 28 other states, and the District of Columbia, in which doctors can legally prescribe marijuana to treat c…
  - 8 May 18, 11:49am -

The Employer's Lawyer

• When Rhetoric Comes to Town
  By now, if you haven’t heard about Donald Trump’s statements on Muslims and his plan to prevent Muslims from entering the country, as well as the vehement support he is receiving from an astonishing number of people, you may be living under a roc…
  - 9 Dec 15, 7:44pm -
• Beware the FMLA Equitable Estoppel Claim
  Imagine that your company has 40 employees, one of whom is subject to hospitalization for a medical condition and requires surgery. He is out of work for several weeks and in his absence, the company realizes that it gets along fine without him. As a…
  - 10 Nov 15, 2:23pm -
• Don’t Bet on the Jury Verdict
  As some of those who follow me on Twitter know, I had jury duty in September. Like most people, it wasn’t something I was looking forward to (and I even tried to get out of it on the basis that no one would pick a lawyer for a jury). Well, it turn…
  - 5 Nov 15, 2:55pm -

Connecticut Employment Law Blog

• DOL vs. DRS: Battle of the Employee / Independent Contractor Misclassification Tests
  Employers who want to (or need to) use independent contractors often scratch their heads at a disconnect – how do you determine who is an independent contractor?  I recall at one speaking engagement years ago, an employer who came up to me and ask…
  - 8 days ago, 12 Feb 19, 5:00pm -
• Busy General Assembly Session for 2019 Just Getting Started (Part 2)
  Yesterday, I tackled the bills floating around the Senate-side of the Connecticut General Assembly,  In today’s post, let’s look at the House side to see what bills are under consideration there: House Bill 5003 is the mirror-image bill of Senat…
  - 10 days ago, 11 Feb 19, 2:30pm -
• Busy Legislative Session Has Lots of Employment Law Bills On Tap (Part 1)
  The Connecticut General Assembly is already busy with a full compliment of employment law bills under consideration.  At this point, it seems likely that several will pass in one form or another and thus employers should be playing close attention t…
  - 10 days ago, 10 Feb 19, 4:58pm -

FMLA Insights

• Creating Practical FMLA and ADA Training for Your Managers: Recap of our Webinar
  Thanks to those who attended my webinar last week with Matt Morris on “Six Ways Your Managers Are Causing FMLA & ADA Leave Lawsuits, and How to Train Them to Stop.” A link to the recording can be accessed here (just requires providing some bas…
  - 64 days ago, 19 Dec 18, 6:07am -
• Paying Out a Year-End Bonus or an Incentive Payment: Can an Employer Withhold the Money from the Employee Who Took FMLA Leave?
  It’s the end of the year, which means bonus time. Or perhaps instead you want to offer a pay incentive to employees to improve attendance or production?  Take, for instance, a point-based attendance bonus policy in which employees are assessed po…
  - 77 days ago, 6 Dec 18, 7:00am -
• What if I Offered You a Free Webinar That Provided the Roadmap to Create Your Own FMLA & ADA Manager Training? Would you Attend?
  When: Wednesday, December 12 (12:00 – 1:15 p.m. central time) Online registration: Click Here Over the past year alone, employers have been forced to defend FMLA and ADA lawsuits due simply to an inappropriate comment from a manager after an emplo…
  - 8 Nov 18, 6:44am -

Labor Relations Today

• Creating Practical FMLA and ADA Training for Your Managers: Recap of our Webinar
  Thanks to those who attended my webinar last week with Matt Morris on “Six Ways Your Managers Are Causing FMLA & ADA Leave Lawsuits, and How to Train Them to Stop.” A link to the recording can be accessed here (just requires providing some bas…
  - 64 days ago, 19 Dec 18, 6:07am -
• Paying Out a Year-End Bonus or an Incentive Payment: Can an Employer Withhold the Money from the Employee Who Took FMLA Leave?
  It’s the end of the year, which means bonus time. Or perhaps instead you want to offer a pay incentive to employees to improve attendance or production?  Take, for instance, a point-based attendance bonus policy in which employees are assessed po…
  - 77 days ago, 6 Dec 18, 7:00am -
• What if I Offered You a Free Webinar That Provided the Roadmap to Create Your Own FMLA & ADA Manager Training? Would you Attend?
  When: Wednesday, December 12 (12:00 – 1:15 p.m. central time) Online registration: Click Here Over the past year alone, employers have been forced to defend FMLA and ADA lawsuits due simply to an inappropriate comment from a manager after an emplo…
  - 8 Nov 18, 6:44am -

Employment and Labor Insider

Delaware Employment Blog

Lawffice Space

• newQuoted in Courts take note of sex stereotyping in #MeToo era in Business Insurance
  Straight from the department of shameless self-promotion, check out Courts take note of sex stereotyping in #MeToo era in Business Insurance, featuring a quote from yours truly. Enjoy!
  - 14 hours ago, 20 Feb 19, 2:03pm -
• I heard the 4th Circuit recognized a harassment claim based on rumors, pass it on.
  [T]he central question presented is whether a false rumor that a female employee slept with her male boss to obtain promotion can ever give rise to her employer’s liability under Title VII for discrimination “because of sex.”Welcome to Parker…
  - 8 days ago, 13 Feb 19, 2:07pm -
• Fine, here's that NLRB Independent Contractor decision
  Whether workers are properly classified as independent contractors or employees is an important issue. It is also a frustrating issue. Different courts and agencies use different tests depending on the circumstances (union organizing, workers' comp,…
  - 13 days ago, 8 Feb 19, 2:33pm -

Employment Law Navigator

• Thanks, and so long…
  After 3 great years, the Employment Law Navigator is coming to an end. We’ve had fun, and we hope our posts have been helpful. Our sincere thanks to our contributors and to Zelle’s superb Marketing Director Dan Gruber, who picked our art, caug…
  - 28 Jul 17, 6:38pm -
• That is SO last week
  Last week, HR Dive reported on a Washington federal court’s June order requiring that a public employer pay $1.8 million to a terminated employee.  The worker was fired when she failed a drug test due to her lawful use of prescription drugs, test…
  - 24 Jul 17, 7:29pm -
• That Critical First Response to Harassment Complaints: Stage 2
  Last week, we wroteabout the importance of “first responders” who receive complaints of workplace harassment, and provided tips on how they should prepare for and react to complaints.  This week, we continue to focus on the early stages of the c…
  - 20 Jul 17, 5:43pm -