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The Employer Handbook BlogA Texas federal judge should decide the fate of the FTC noncompete rule today. So, let’s make this interesting….
Let’s play a game of “closest to the pin.” Continue reading
Articles Posted in Hiring & Firing
Employers: It’s time again to have an employment lawyer review your severance agreements.
On Wednesday, an administrative law judge issued a cease and desist order forcing an employer to rescind overly broad nondisparagement and confidentiality language from its severance agreement and notify all former employees who signed them.
This could have been avoided. Continue reading
Poor Yelp reviews — and not retaliation — are why this rude restaurant hostess got fired
The hostess at an Asian-American restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, was employed in that role for about two years.
Two years the restaurant probably wishes it could have back. Continue reading
This guy didn’t need an accommodation to perform his job. He wanted one to avoid discipline.
Today, I will tell you about an employee caught sleeping on the job.
Several times. Continue reading
Man tests positive for marijuana, blames it on his lip balm, and doubles down with an ADA lawsuit.
Yesterday, I wrote about how the DEA’s move to ease restrictions on marijuana would change the ADA landscape for employers by requiring accommodations for employees with disabilities who use medical cannabis to treat.
For now, however, marijuana remains a Schedule One drug. So, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not protect individuals with actual disabilities who lose their jobs for testing positive because the ADA does not protect individuals engaging in “the illegal use of drugs” within the meaning of the statute.
But what if the employee does not have an actual disability? Continue reading
With the DEA reportedly ready to ease restrictions on marijuana, the ADA landscape changes for employers
Last week, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would move to reclassify marijuana (cannabis), moving it from Schedule I, where it’s currently listed with heroin and LSD, to Schedule III, with as less dangerous doctor-prescribed drugs like (Tylenol with codeine) and testosterone. Continue reading
How did a white man convince a jury to award him over $10M for race and gender discrimination?
In 2013, a healthcare provider hired a white man—let’s call him plaintiff—as its Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications. And he crushed it, receiving strong performance reviews and gaining national recognition for himself and the marketing program he developed.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, he was fired. Continue reading
Man wins $1.5M discrimination verdict. Then the appellate court completely erased it. Here’s why…
I want to tell you about an Army reservist whose employer investigated him for taking fraudulent leave. That investigation spawned a grand jury indictment for theft. The employee was booked, detained in jail, suspended from his job, and eventually fired.
Yada, yada, yada, a federal jury awarded the employee $1,500,000. Continue reading
Have you ever heard of an “intersectional” discrimination claim?
A white man filed a lawsuit against a company claiming that it denied him a high-six-figure executive position because of his race, age, and sex so that the company could search for more diverse candidates. Among the causes of action he asserted was one for race discrimination under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. A plaintiff suing under Section 1981 for a failure to hire must establish that “but for” his race, he would have gotten the job.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up. Continue reading
Can employers legally favor transgender employees over cisgender employees?
The words “cisgender” or “non-transgender” employee appear nowhere in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal workplace law that outlaws gender discrimination. But, according to a Pennsylvania federal judge, “that does not preclude the possibility that discrimination against both a cisgender male and cisgender female may be independent Title VII violations.”
I’ll explain why. Continue reading