Right or wrong, an honest belief may be all it takes to proffer a nondiscriminatory reason for an adverse employment action. Do you remember that employer that terminated 65 employees seeking FMLA simultaneously with the same doctor’s notes? The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the company suspected shenanigans,…
Among the top employment issues that companies will need to navigate in 2024 is enforcing laws that have more recently taken effect. Take the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, for example. The PUMP Act, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, took effect in December 2022. It provides additional workplace…
Well, I don’t know if it’s the worst, but getting sentenced to 24 months in prison for a network intrusion and making false statements to a government agency sounds pretty bad. I was reading about this situation last night, and it sounded like something I would have blogged about before.…
Although the vast majority of businesses implemented a written COVID-19 policy at one time or another, many have eliminated or stopped updating those policies. That’s what I learned from a poll I posted on Friday using SurveyMonkey, to which 227 people responded. However, in full disclosure, I didn’t realize at…
The other day, a partner asked me about COVID-19 policies and how clients may still implement them. Candidly, it wasn’t something I’d thought about for a while. Heck, I had to dust one off to remember all of the minutiae about vaccines, CDC guidelines, etc. There are a few states…
Let’s see if you agree with me. The defendant operated a hotel and event venue. The plaintiff had an opioid addiction and had been prescribed methadone to treat her addiction. She took methadone daily. In 2021, the plaintiff applied for the position of banquet bartender with the defendant. The plaintiff…
About three years ago, seven plant managers lost their jobs following an investigation into allegations of betting on how many workers there would get sick from the coronavirus. Shortly before losing their jobs, a handful did not receive a bonus they felt the company improperly withheld. So they sued. What…
Yes, soon after I start recycling old blog posts next month about the liability risks that employees and their poor costume choices present for employers, all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting specific criteria can start submitting demographic workforce data,…
Or, more precisely, my oldest son and I will be traveling from Philly to Cincinnati to watch the Marlins take on the Reds in a 12:35 matinee. I have no particular vested interest in the game other than clear skies and, perhaps, an adult beverage. Dinner recommendations for after the…
It was bound to happen sooner or later, tbh. As Presidents change from Democrat to Republican to Democrat, the complexion of the five-member (well, four now) National Labor Relations Board flips from union-friendly to management-friendly to union-friendly. And as the pendulum swings hard one way or the other, big “precedential”…