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New legislation would guarantee employees the right to collective and class action litigation

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/photos/achievement-agreement-business-3385068/) Last year in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the Supreme Court narrowly concluded that a court should enforce an agreement between an employer and employee to arbitrate claims individually notwithstanding workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act to engage in protected concerted activity. That decision…

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Seven signs the non-solicitation and non-competition agreements your employees signed may be unenforceable.

User:VasilievVV and user:Jarekt [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsOne of the benefits of being a client of this handsome employment lawyer/blogger is a weekly email with links to recent HR news and notes, as well as a bonus HR-compliance tip. The rest of you deadbeats are stuck with only five free weekly…

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#Nextchat: My Employees Can Miss How Much Work?! Managing the Challenges of Leave Under the FMLA and ADA #SHRM19

Image Credit: SHRM.org Last night, after the big Sixers win over the Raptors, I checked out the EEOC Newsroom to hunt for blog fodder for today. That’s when I noticed that four of the five most recent EEOC press releases addressed claims of disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities…

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Yeah, about that rule where you don’t allow employees to text that they’ll be late or absent…

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/illustrations/mobile-text-phone-sms-980030/) Here’s the thing. If you’re managers relax the rule for their direct reports, good luck trying to use that rule as a basis to terminate someone’s employment. Consider this recent Fourth Circuit opinion. It involves an African American employee — let’s call him ‘Plaintiff’ — who…

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For real this time, the EEO-1 deadline is September 30, 2019. Seriously

Multiple reports (1, 2, 3), are confirming that District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled yesterday that the deadline for filing your EEO-1 filing will be September 30, 2019. (For more on this EEO-1 circus, click here.) That’s it. That’s all I’ve got for you today. Well, unless you like HR-compliance…

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The Supreme Court just buried class-action arbitration of employment claims*

Image Credit: Photofunia.com (http://photofunia.com/results/5cc10d55846d7897318b4581) In 2010, the Supreme Court held in Stolt-Nielsen SA v. AnimalFeeds International that a court may not compel class-action arbitration when an arbitration agreement is silent on the availability of such arbitration. Last year, in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the Supreme Court issued another employer-friendly…

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A heterosexual employee sued for sexual-orientation discrimination. Really?!?

Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/photos/question-question-mark-survey-2736480/) Oh, did I mention that the plaintiff was the HR Manager? Bruh… And she made an incendiary Facebook post. Well, that I can believe. (I’m friends on Facebook with several HR folks.) Then again, I don’t recall seeing a post like this. Let’s check out the…

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Why was there an employment law trending on Twitter yesterday? Oh, I think I know.

Image Credit: https://pixabay.com/en/pride-gay-nyc-new-york-city-flag-2444813/ The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the prohibition against sex discrimination in Title VII also covers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In other words, are there LGBT legal rights in the workplace? I should be on my third keyboard with all of…

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How in the world did a DEAD person get suspended for racist behavior?!?

Uncredited [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsNot only that but two different employers disciplined the same dead person on the same day. Last Friday, I was on the road in Cleveland doing some anti-harassment training for managers and supervisors. Minutes before my second session, I glanced down at my phone to…