A recent decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals addresses the extent to which an employer may lawfully dig up reasons to terminate a current employee who has already sued for discrimination. The plaintiff initially filed a lawsuit against his employer alleging race discrimination, retaliation, and a race-based hostile…
This one company I’m going to tell you about today allegedly acted so egregiously that it drew the attention of (and a lawsuit from) the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Imagine that someone comes to HR one day and complaints about sex discrimination. Do you? Reassure the complainant that the…
You guys remember ‘Central Park Karen,’ right? I wrote about her last year. ‘Central Park Karen’ (not her real name) is a white woman who worked as a portfolio manager for an investment company in New York. That is until a video went viral on social media. That video depicted…
Here’s the general rule of thumb when employees receive tips. They get to keep them. As Jon Hyman pointed out in his blog post yesterday at the Ohio Employer Law Blog, there are certain exceptions to that rule, none of which involves sharing employee tips with managers and supervisors. A bunch…
With Summer winding down, it’s time to knock the dust off my Zoom Pro account, pour a beverage, and bring back The Employer Handbook Zoom Happy Hour. Most of you know the drill. But I’ll explain for the newer subscribers. On Fridays, often flanked by a FisherBroyles partner or another…
Imagine a situation that, well, won’t be too hard to imagine. One of your employees gets a new supervisor, and things don’t seem to be working out. The employee complains that the new supervisor scheduled her to work the closing shift even though it conflicted with her ability to provide…
Winning a retaliation lawsuit against an employer isn’t easy. The plaintiff-employee must prove three elements: she engaged in a protected activity; the defendant-employer took an employment action adverse to the plaintiff; and there was a causal connection between the protected activity and the adverse employment action. A journalist at a…
Think of all the personal, sensitive information that an individual shares with you just to have the opportunity to earn a living as an employee of your company. As part of onboarding, new employees provide their home address, social security number, bank and financial account numbers for direct deposit, insurance…
The surprise will quickly disappear once I share the facts from this recent Third Circuit decision. The plaintiff was a patient representative with a local hospital. On January 3, 2014, he reported to work amid a snowstorm. After his shift ended, the plaintiff slipped and fell while searching for a…
Like saying, “It depends,” you can count on a lawyer blogging about cannabis and employment law to drop a marijuana pun in the title of the post. Legal recreational cannabis and its impact at work. In early 2021, New Jersey legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older when Governor…