U.S. Government/Gobierno de los Estados Unidos / Public domain Last week, we covered (here) what the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission wants employers to know about COVID-19 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. This week, we have new guidance from OSHA and the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.…
Image Credit: Google Street View According to multiple news reports, on Friday, shortly after the Henry Pratt Company communicated to a 15-year employee that the company was ending his employment, he began shooting. All told, he killed five employees (in a five-minute span). After police arrived, the shooter exchanged gunfire.…
Image Credit: Photofunia.com (http://photofunia.com/results/5b8f35e6089f7a90518b4572) Oh, I’ve got your hookup today. As I was getting caught up on last week’s email, I came across a News Release from the U.S. Department of Labor. In this Release, the DOL touted “cross-agency effort complements the Department’s enforcement activities by strengthening and innovating compliance assistance…
Last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held (here) that a local employer may have a duty to accommodate an employee’s use of medicinal marijuana. You can read more about that decision at Jon Hyman’s Ohio Employer’s Law Blog. Wait, what? If marijuana is still considered an illegal drug under federal law —…
I’ll open this post with a haiku. Because, I feel like we could all use a haiku. President-Elect For HR, what will he do? Not a stinkin’ clue! …and any employment-law wonk who tells you otherwise, well, we saw how the pundits fared predicting the outcome of the presidential election.…
In 2014, President Obama signed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order. Folks like me on the management-side refer to this Order as the Blacklisting rules. In general terms (I’ll get a little more specific below), the Blacklisting rules require prospective federal contractors and subcontractors to disclose anything that may appear on…
 Yesterday’s tragic shooting in Virginia, in which two journalists were killed by a former co-worker and third individual was badly injured, was blindsiding. In the hours that passed, we learned more about the shooter’s turbulent work history. However, the only real hints at total disaster came in near real time, as the…
Many of us, including me, have a loved one or friend who has suffered through mental illness. With proper treatment, counseling and support, the symptoms may be controllable. However, sometimes medication and treatment aren’t enough. Mental illness, which generally qualifies as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, can…
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board issued this memorandum in which it has instructed regional offices to encourage employees to file complaints with the United States Department of Labor if the the regional NLRB office “believes that an employer may have violated a substantive or anti-retaliation provision of [OSHA]…
In every one of the United States, except Montana, employment is at-will. This means that, absent a contract of employment for a specific period of time, you may fire an employee for any reason or no reason at all. (Not to be confused with “right to work” — more on…