If you’re in a rush, I’ll hit you with the punchline and save you the trouble of reading 1,000+ words of blog post: Telecommuting may be a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, except where regular attendance is an essential function of the job. For those of you with a…
Exactly one month ago, I addressed what many consider to be the elephant in the room when it comes to transgender employees: bathroom use. On Wednesday, EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum fired off a series of tweets (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) to lawyers representing employers and employees. Below (and…
Where do I find these cases, you ask? Well, I sold my soul, and a stack of Billy Ripken baseball cards, to the devil a long time ago. I ain’t telling. But seriously, this case isn’t so much about the particular facts… White employee tosses banana peels at work Black employees complain…
Happy Monday, everyone. Glad to see I didn’t break some of your content filters on Friday with my filthy NLRB post. But, hey, just another day in the interesting life of an employment lawyer / HR professional, amirite? Today, I bring you a very simple lesson, courtesy of the Third Circuit Court…
One week ago today, a Germanwings plane carrying 150 people crashed and killed everyone on board. Since then, there is mounting evidence that the co-pilot, who was in great physical shape, was also suffering from mental illness which caused him to deliberately steer Flight 9525 into the French Alps. Why didn’t Germanwings taken preventative…
I intended to begin the week with a post about a company’s legal obligation to predict — yes, predict — an employee’s mental fitness for duty. Then, I started on a brief tangent on Ellen Pao, the former partner of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, who just lost a highly-publicized gender discrimination claim against said…
But, I’ll do my best to sort it out for you. Let’s assume that you have a pregnant employee who tells you that she has a lifting restriction. In the past, you have accommodated employees with disabilities who had similar lifting restrictions. You’ve also done the same for folks who…
Well, I think we can all agree that, when an employee’s protected class motivates a company to transfer him to a less desirable position, it’s time to call the lawyers and break out the checkbook. But, what makes a transfer position less desirable? Yesterday, I was reading this Sixth Circuit opinion about a…
And the Czech judge scored my lede a 4.3. Well, the second she starts paying my legal bills, maybe, I’ll give a damn. Until then… What was I talking about? Oh yes, religious discrimination. Over the weekend, I read this PA federal court opinion about an atheist who claimed that his…
I’m a bit late to the party with this one. But, for those who haven’t read about it elsewhere. Voila! The plaintiff originally taught at the high school, during which she informed her employer about her pedophobia, a debilitating fear of young children. Some time later, the plaintiff was transferred to…