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The Employer Handbook Blog

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Court upholds employee firing after complaining about gay slurs. Was that a mistake?

Mr. Gaff worked as a custodian at a University. He claimed that, on several occasions, his subordinate called him a “fa***t.” So, Mr. Gaff complained to his supervisor. Then, Mr. Gaff was later fired. Retaliation? Are you going to be at the ABA Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference in Philly…

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President Obama wants federal agencies to “Ban the Box”

No more questions about criminal convictions on job applications. Flanked by New Jersey Senator (and former Newark Mayor) Cory Booker (D-NJ), President Obama announced yesterday in Newark, NJ that he would take action to help those with criminal convictions to find jobs. According to a White House Fact Sheet, one of…

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More EEOC rules on employer wellness programs are coming. Will yours make the cut?

Do you follow me on Twitter? If you do, you may have watched me live-streaming some of my one-year-old, who won Halloween hands-down. Well, that and you would have gotten the early heads up that the EEOC was issuing its proposed rules on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and its…

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Intern fired for racist tweet. But, wait, it gets worse…

On Tuesday, a Fox affiliate in Arizona reported here that an intern at a health and wellness company was fired for an offensive tweet. Specifically, the intern tweeting a photo showing her and a friend in a cotton field with the caption “Our inner n****r came out today.” The intern quickly deleted…

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Did you hear the one about the HR Manager who’d never heard of Title VII?

The bottom of the first page of this recent federal court opinion in EEOC v. Star Transport, Inc. really grabbed my attention: In December 2008 or January 2009, Edward Briggs became Star Transport’s Human Resources Manager. He received no training on anti-discrimination laws, was not aware of any exceptions to…

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Are paralegals entitled to overtime under the FLSA? Probably.

Last Friday, I had the honor and privilege of presenting at the Philadelphia Association of Paralegals’ Education Conference. The class was essentially a primer on the basics of employment law, during which I emphasized both the types of claims on which paralegals may assist clients, and the employment-law issues that the…

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Let’s revisit that post about cursing out your boss on Facebook

Last year, at about this time, I blogged here about a case involving some employees who thought that their employer had underpaid them. So, they discussed the matter at work. And then continued their conversation on Facebook, where they used language that wouldn’t quite make an Eagles fan in the 700 level…