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The Employer Handbook BlogThis guy didn’t need an accommodation to perform his job. He wanted one to avoid discipline.
Today, I will tell you about an employee caught sleeping on the job.
Several times. Continue reading
Man tests positive for marijuana, blames it on his lip balm, and doubles down with an ADA lawsuit.
Yesterday, I wrote about how the DEA’s move to ease restrictions on marijuana would change the ADA landscape for employers by requiring accommodations for employees with disabilities who use medical cannabis to treat.
For now, however, marijuana remains a Schedule One drug. So, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect individuals with actual disabilities who lose their jobs for testing positive because the ADA does not protect individuals engaging in “the illegal use of drugs” within the meaning of the statute.
But what if the employee does not have an actual disability? Continue reading
With the DEA reportedly ready to ease restrictions on marijuana, the ADA landscape changes for employers
Last week, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would move to reclassify marijuana (cannabis), moving it from Schedule I, where it’s currently listed with heroin and LSD, to Schedule III, with as less dangerous doctor-prescribed drugs like (Tylenol with codeine) and testosterone. Continue reading
Must an employer accommodate an employee who won’t use transgender names and pronouns?
Readers of this blog know that the EEOC recently finalized its new workplace harassment guidance and that one of the contentious issues in the guidance, according to a dissenting EEOC Commissioner, is the EEOC’s position that misgendering an employee, e.g., by consistently using the wrong pronouns, can violate Title VII. Continue reading
DOL to Employers: Using artificial intelligence does not excuse compliance with the FLSA and FMLA
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division published new guidance reminding employers that the use of artificial intelligence and other automated technologies to track work hours, optimize employee performance, and administer leaves of absence does not excuse compliance with the laws that the WHD enforces, namely, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Continue reading
The EEOC has finalized its new workplace harassment guidance
In October 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted to propose new Guidance on workplace harassment, the first voted document the EEOC had issued on harassment since its “Enforcement Guidance on Vicarious Liability for Unlawful Harassment by Supervisors” in 1999.
Yesterday, after receiving approximately 38,000 comments on its proposal, the EEOC published its final Guidance on harassment in the workplace, “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.” Continue reading
See you on Zoom today at Noon ET to address the FTC’s noncompete ban and the DOL’s OT changes
You still have time to register (here) for The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Happy Hour, which returns today at Noon ET. My Pierson Ferdinand employment law partners, Ben Jacobs and Amy Epstein Gluck, will join me to discuss the FTC’s plan to ban most employee noncompetes and explore the Department of Labor’s proposed increase to the salary level for overtime exemptions.
See you soon!
17 states sue to block the EEOC from greenlighting abortion leave under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
From the time it proposed regulations to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to when it issued a final rule earlier this month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received approximately 54,000 comments urging it to exclude abortion from the definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”
The EEOC did not oblige.
And now, 17 states are suing. Continue reading
It’s official. The feds plan to ban most employee noncompetes. But is this fire or smoke?
In January 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a rule generally prohibiting employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers. In the following year and change, the federal agency received more than 26,000 comments on the proposed rule, with over 25,000 comments supporting the FTC’s proposed ban on noncompetes.
Yesterday, the FTC voted 3-2 in favor of a final Noncompete Rule imposing a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes with all workers, including senior executives. Continue reading