Allow me to explain. When is a lateral transfer a discrimination lawsuit? [cue music] Today’s lesson comes from the DC Circuit’s recent decision in Ortiz-Diaz v. HUD. Here’s how the appellate court summarized the facts and issues: Samuel Ortiz-Diaz was a criminal investigator in the Office of the Inspector General at the…
The Employer Handbook Blog
What employers can learn from one company’s $747,320.66 FMLA mistake
The Department of Labor does most of the heavy lifting for you. But, today’s blog post is a sobering reminder that when an employer provides DOL-prepared Family and Medical Leave Act paperwork to an employee, it’s just as important for the employer to complete its portion of the forms as…
Fact or fiction: The FMLA may protect pre-eligible employees
That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.” Let’s do an FMLA quiz. We know that an FMLA-eligible employee must check three boxes: Work at a location that…
How would you respond if your employee was photographed marching in Charlottesville over the weekend?
Following a tumultuous weekend in Charlottesville, VA, where a white nationalist march turned deadly, it appears as though at least one attendee will return home from the rally to find himself unemployed. “Unite the Right” attendees are getting outed on social media and apparently losing their jobs. Seth Millstein at…
He was hired at 63 and fired at 64. Yep, that could still be age discrimination.
A lesson on why it’s so important to tell it like it is when firing someone. “It’s not working out.” The plaintiff in McMullin v. Evangelical Services for the Aging (opinion here) began his job as CFO in March 2014. He was 63. Hired by the employer’s CEO, the plaintiff…
No take backs! Employer rescinds a termination, but can’t dodge a discrimination claim
The rules of the playground apply with equal force at work. Except, no cooties. [For my email subscribers, sorry about the deluge of posts today. We had some technical difficulties with the email feed over the past two days. I apologize. But, you guys get what you pay for.] Yesterday,…
Another court greenlights a medicinal marijuana user’s lawsuit against his former employer
This may not be Magic vs. Bird or Biggie vs. Tupac. Those battles are too close to call. But, if I were to ask you which side of the country, east coast or west coast, would offer greater judicial support for the employment rights of medicinal-marijuana cardholders, you’d say west…
Free speech at work and protected concerted activity are burning up the hot stove this week!
The heat is most definitely on. Google and the myth of free speech at work. So, have you heard the news about the Google employee — well, now ex-Google employee — who authored and posted a diversity (anti-diversity?) memo to the company intranet. Yeah, that didn’t go over so well.…
If you think you’re gonna get sued, protect your documents! Or else bad things may happen.
Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “S.” Back in 2010, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed two religious-accommodation lawsuits against a company called JBS USA, LLC. One was in Nebraska. I’ve blogged about that one before (here). The other was filed in Colorado. And that’s the…
Here’s how promoting your company on LinkedIn could cost you your job.
Especially if you overlook that non-solicitation agreement you signed with your prior employer… Early last month, I blogged here about a situation involving an individual who: signed a non-solicitation agreement with Company A; left Company A to work for Company B; and invited some former Company A employees to connect…