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Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing

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These were the most popular employment law blog posts of 2021

If it had anything to do with COVID-19 vaccination mandates, y’all were reading. That and the third-most-read post, which leaves me wondering whether I should be taking out a restraining order against some of you. Here are the most-read posts from 2021: 5. “And just like that, the CMS vaccine…

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PSA: Hire a lawyer to draft your employment agreements. Otherwise, you may end up like this.

And by “this,” I mean spending a lot more on lawyers to defend a breach of contract claim from a former employee who claims that the employment agreement she signed promised a guaranteed year of employment. But you be the judge. Here’s what a poorly drafted sentence of the contract…

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Is it legal to fire over 900 employees at once over Zoom?

Image by Lynn Kurtz from Pixabay News of a New York-based online mortgage lender’s CEO terminating over 900 employees with no notice on a three-minute Zoom call has been dominating my Google Alerts recently. There’s this NBCnews.com report from Elisha Fieldstadt, Ali Gostanian, and Bianca Britton. Noah Kirsch also reported…

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A federal judge made it really dang hard to prove medical marijuana discrimination

CommunistSquared, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Greetings from Seattle. Before I begin my day of **checks notes** culture and refinement, I figured I’d blog first about this recent opinion from a federal court in Pennsylvania. It involves an individual — let’s just call him “Plaintiff” — who claimed that his former…

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Joking around about COVID-19 can get you fired … and 15 months in federal prison too 😨

Image Credit: Piqsels.com Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a Texas man received 15 months in prison for perpetrating a hoax related to COVID-19 after a federal jury found him guilty of two counts of 18 U.S.C. § 1038, which criminalizes false information and hoaxes related to…

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Lesbian coach is reinstated after outpouring of support from students, parents, and alums

Henning Schlottmann (User:H-stt), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Over at the FisherBroyles Employment Law Blog, my partner, Amy Epstein Gluck, wrote here about a recent federal court finding that a Catholic school could not avoid discrimination claims after firing a gay teacher from a secular position. Serendipitously, I just…

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Could you spot your employee’s phony COVID-19 vaccination card? Ok, then what?

Whoisjohngalt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General alerted the public about a variety of COVID-19 scams, ranging from fake contact tracers COVID-19 survey scams asking for all sorts of personal information (e.g.,  Medicare number, financial information)…

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A Florida doctor can no longer see patients allegedly after selling $50 mask waivers on Facebook

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay It’s tough enough dealing with employees who submit shady doctor notes to avoid masks or getting a COVID-19 vaccination. (I find that letterhead printed on a Saltine is a dead-bang giveaway.) But, what happens to the doctors that write these opt-out letters? The other…

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Imagine testing positive for cocaine at work … and getting to keep your job?!?

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay A little Thursday lesson on the importance of consistency, precise language, and following your rules. But before I do that, might you be interested in “Everything HR Ever Wanted to Know about Mandating COVID-19 Vaccinations in the Workplace“? If learning more about religious accommodations, booster…