Yesterday, we covered whether the Family and Medical Leave Act allows women who have an abortion to obtain leave for a serious health condition. Today, we’ll talk about the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit employers from taking adverse employment…
The Employer Handbook Blog
Does FMLA cover leave for abortion? What about in states where it’s illegal?
The ink was barely dry on the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization when the U.S. Department of Labor released a statement in which the agency confirmed that it would continue “empowering women using every tool” available. The DOL supports reproductive freedom. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of…
What should we say to our employees about Roe v. Wade?
Over the weekend, I read this Reddit post. It’s from an individual who says the company will require employees to attend a pro-life celebration today following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Many of the 1,300 comments focus on the wage-and-hour implications of…
Here’s another reason why enforcing a non-compete can be so darn expensive
I’ve litigated many battles between companies over trade secrets and non-competition and non-solicitation agreements. The tie that binds them all is that these cases are expensive to prosecute and defend. When these cases advance to court, most are about one thing: getting an injunction to stop a former employee from…
Here’s what you can’t do if you suspect that a former employee has misappropriated trade secrets
People sometimes ask me, “Eric, where do you get all your blog content from?” Often, like today, other blogs inspire me. So, with a big tip of the cap to Evan Brown and his post here at Evan.law, let’s talk about what you can’t do if you suspect that a…
Could your business require medical exams for all workers returning from extended leave?
Some of you are clutching your pearls and mouthing, “God, I hope so.” Glass half full, I may be about to save you a call to your company’s employment lawyer. Glass half empty, you may be pretty screwed if the statute of limitations hasn’t already run on the potential Americans…
Sexual harassment? No, I was just asking for a co-worker’s opinion about my butt lesions.
Does the spike in remote work arrangements over the past few years mean the end of wacky sexual harassment cases? Yeah, right! Although, in fairness, the unique facts of this case long pre-date the pandemic. This one involves a female plaintiff, a professor at a university, who claimed that the…
Gas attendant loses his job over a decimal point error; tries to repay the station.
One of my biggest fears — an employment lawyer neuroticism — is that I will draft a settlement agreement in which I misplace the decimal point or accidentally add a zero, thus turning a $15,000.00 settlement into a $15,000,000 settlement. That’s why I spell out the number (fifteen thousand) and…
A federal appellate court made it difficult to blame ’20-’21 large layoffs on COVID-19
Days since I’ve blogged about COVID-19 = 78 0. I promise(ish), this one will be interesting. And for those of you with businesses that had a mass layoff or plant closing because of COVID-19, it will be horrifying. You see, I just got finished reading a Fifth Circuit decision in…
What would make an HR expert allegedly compare this company’s workplace culture to a “sewer”?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission caught a whiff, sued the employer in December, and just announced a $361,000 settlement for seven current and former female employees. So, here’s what supposedly happened, according to the EEOC’s press release. According to the EEOC’s suit, [the company’s founder, owner and president ……