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Selfishly, a professional perk of a changing White House administration is the business that follows from counseling clients on the new rules when administrative agencies change their rules. For example, as a holdover from the Trump Administration, the Republican majority at the National Labor Relations Board implemented a new joint-employer rule. Continue reading

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An HR employee claimed that her age motivated her employer’s decision not to select her for a Human Resources Talent Consultant (HRTC) position after the company restructured the HR Department.

Why? Because decision-makers allegedly said on a conference call that they were looking for “fresh new blood” to fill the HRTC role.

Is that code for age discrimination?

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I read a recent Sixth Circuit decision. A physician group fired the plaintiff, a nurse, months after she suffered an accident. The group’s subsequent bankruptcy impeded the plaintiff’s efforts to hold it liable for employment discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

Did that stop her from suing for ADA violations? Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be blogging today. Continue reading

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Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that an investigation into a Japanese restaurant had uncovered violations of federal wage and hour laws, resulting in 75 servers, sushi, and hibachi chefs not receiving all of their legally earned wages.

The final bill was $171,834.

That’s a lot of toro and high-end sake. Continue reading

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Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, an employer can insist that employees comply with the company’s “usual and customary” absentee notice procedures. Often those call-out procedures are part of written leave and attendance policies.

But, as one company found out the hard way, “usual and customary” absentee notice can transcend formal policies and procedures when managers bend the rules.

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Image Credit: Photofunia.com

After a ten-day vacation trip with my family (IYKYK) onboard the S.S. Blog Cruiser Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, I’m back to the reality of practicing employment law and blogging about it.

Today, let’s play some tunes as we gaze into the crystal ball and predict what could be the biggest employment law decision of 2023. Continue reading

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According to this recent Seventh Circuit’s opinion, “when [the plaintiff] returned from medical leave, her employer … did not allow her to return to her previous position as a lead teacher at her school. Instead, it placed her in a backwater position with fewer responsibilities that required her to split her time between different schools. After a bench trial, the district court determined that the defendant had violated the Family and Medical Leave Act.”

But here’s the thing. The court awarded the plaintiff no money.

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

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A transgender woman with gender dysphoria spent six months incarcerated in an adult detention center. Prison deputies initially assigned her to women’s housing. But, after they learned that she was transgender, they quickly moved her to men’s housing.

It was a nightmare. Continue reading

“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”
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