By Chris Potter (Flickr: 3D Judges Gavel) [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia CommonsYesterday, I blogged here about the most important employment law decision of 2018. It’s a case called Minarsky v. Susquehanna County (opinion here). If you missed my post, well, it was long. 1,888 words long. So, here’s the super-condensed version:…
By Wolfmann [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons Minarsky v. Susquehanna County (opinion here) is a sexual harassment case. And there’s a lot to discuss. But the biggest takeaway is that any subsequent employer-defendant asserting a Faragher/Ellerth defense in the Third Circuit will find it very difficult to obtain summary…
By U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsRespect to the employment law bloggers, reporters, and others who wasted no time trying to read the tea leaves to predict what Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s record as a jurist would foreshadow should he ascend to…
Source: https://eeotraining.eeoc.gov Yep, it’s that time of year. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Training Institute is hosting its Examining Conflicts in Employment Laws (EXCEL) Training Conference in Washington, DC. The EEOC touts EXCEL as “the premier national training conference for federal and private sector EEO managers, supervisors, practitioners, HR professionals, attorneys and Alternative…
Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/mail-message-email-send-message-1454731/) In 2014, the National Labor Relations Board ruled here in a case called Purple Communications that employees can use company email to try to form a union. Specifically, the Board held that “employee use of email for statutorily protected communication on nonworking time must presumptively be permitted…
Image Credit: Frinkiac.com Either way, it doesn’t belong on a hot dog. Ever. That much hasn’t changed since I originally posted this last year. Heck, if it were up to me, I’d fire anyone who put ketchup on a hot dog. It seems that would be consistent with the at-will employment doctrine. Under…
By dbking (Presidential Motorcade, PA Ave NW) [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia CommonsRemember the woman who… flipped off President Trump’s motorcade, got photographed in the act, became a viral sensation, got fired from her job, and sued claiming a violation of public policy. Whatever happened to that lawsuit? According to multiple…
A few weeks ago, I delivered a #MeToo presentation to a local chapter of HR professionals. Our dialogue evolved into a discussion of other “respect in the workplace” topics with which many companies are presently wrestling. The trouble with politics at work. One of the audience members volunteered that her…
Image Credit: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trileptal_tablets.jpg) CC BY-SA 3.0, Link During this July 4th holiday week, I don’t expect many of you to read this blog. So, thank you to those who do stick around. And, come mid-week, I’ll set off some legal backyard fireworks in your honor. ***Updates shopping list*** And I’ll bring my…
By U.S. Government (Extracted from PDF file here.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsThere will come a time that one of your current or former employees will file a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against your company. So, you just received an EEOC Charge. When your…