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The Employer Handbook BlogChoose your words carefully when using noncompetition agreements
Many courts are generally reluctant to enforce noncompetes. And sometimes employers make their tasks even easier.
I’m naturally skeptical when an employee claims sexual orientation bias against straight people.
So when the plaintiff in this federal court decision I read last night cited as evidence of her employer’s heterosexual animus that her gay coworker received a cake and party by gay supervisors on his 30th work anniversary, whereas she did not receive cake or party for the same occasion, my Spidey senses were really tingling. Continue reading
Close counts in horseshoes and accommodating individuals with disabilities at work
Last night, I read a federal appellate court decision in which an employee with back spasms, sciatica, fibromyalgia, and pinched nerves claimed that her employer didn’t give her the help she needed to do her job.
The plaintiff requested a “standing footrest” and “ergonomic chair” as reasonable accommodations. But she claimed she received a “rocking footrest” and a “dilapidated ergonomic chair.” Continue reading
400,000 reasons not to have this pregnancy policy in your workplace
Yesterday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced (here) that an employer will fork over $400,000, split among 11 women, stemming from a written policy that violates both the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Continue reading
Since when do courts get to second-guess an employer’s hiring decisions? Since last Monday.
On April 10, 2023, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amul R. Thapar offered his two cents on the role the federal courts should have in second-guessing the business judgment of companies making hiring decisions: Continue reading
NJ’s new WARN Act Amendments are now in effect (as of April 10, 2023)
You’ll find an important update if you head over to the official Layoffs and Closings website for New Jersey’s Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Continue reading
Can employers require employees to make up time they miss for FMLA leave?
The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for a qualifying reason, such as taking care of a parent with a serious health condition. Employers, on the other hand, cannot interfere with employees’ FMLA rights.
But, are there circumstances in which an employer can provide FMLA leave to an eligible employee and then require them to work extra time — maybe a Saturday — to make up the time they missed?
A CBD user drug tests positive. Do we have to excuse it? Is she actually disabled?
The EEOC has guided employers to accommodate employee use of certain prescribed medications, and excuse failed drug tests that reflect the presence of those drugs — if it is done safely — because those individuals who test positive likely have an underlying disability.
But, when employee self-medicate — like with CBDs for stress and anxiety — not only is there no duty to accommodate, the employee may not be able to establish an underlying disability. Continue reading
This guy’s discrimination claims were so bad. (How bad were they?)
They were so bad that a federal judge applied a rarely-used rule of civil procedure to consider summary judgment on its own after identifying for the parties material facts that may not be genuinely in dispute.
Boy, that was about as witty as Groundskeeper Willie’s standup routine at Springfield Elementary.
(Note to self: take after the Clown.) Continue reading
If this isn’t a ringing endorsement for updating your employee handbook, then what is?
I get that employee handbooks are not contacts and are subject to change and all that stuff. But, companies should be prepared to enforce any existing policy in an employee handbook as written.
A multi-billion-dollar company with an overly broad attendance policy learned this lesson the hard way recently. Continue reading