Articles and Blogs

The EEOC’s first systemic lawsuit brought under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) has resulted in a defendant nursing and rehabilitation center agreeing to settle for $370,000 and other penalties as explained below. Employers will recall that GINA prohibits employers from discriminating and retaliating against employees or job applicants based on genetic information and... READ MORE

An employee who is caught sleeping on the job will usually end up getting fired. Indeed, this is what happened when a night shift employee was caught sleeping numerous times. The employee was given progressive warnings, including a final warning, before getting caught the last time and was fired. This seems pretty straightforward; however,... READ MORE

Extensive Resource Materials Available The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”)  launched a new educational online resource on January 15, 2014, which has extensive materials to help hospitals prevent worker injuries, assess workplace safety needs, enhance safe patient handling programs and implement safety and health management systems. The materials include fact... READ MORE

NLRB Throws in the Towel Yesterday, the NLRB announced that it has decided not to seek Supreme Court review of two U.S. Court of Appeals decisions invalidating the NLRB’s Notice Posting Rule, which would have required most private sector employers to post a notice of employee rights in the workplace.  We have written about... READ MORE

Windows and Sinks and Employee Complaints  Employees have a right to complain about a lot of things, including windows and sinks.  When they join together to complain, an employer needs to make sure that those complaints are not factors in the decision to fire the complaining employees.  In this NLRB case, a hospital fired a... READ MORE

Fast Food Workers Strike for Higher Pay Earlier this month, in 100 cities around the country, fast food workers went on strike for higher pay – much higher pay – seeking $15 an hour or a “living wage” as some describe it.  Although the job action got much media attention, there is no real... READ MORE

The OFCCP is hosting a series of webinars designed to help federal contractors understand and implement its newly published regulations regarding affirmative action for individuals with disabilities and certain protected veterans.  These new regulations, which become effective on March 24, 2014, significantly change the affirmative action obligations related to individuals with disabilities and certain... READ MORE

IRS rules governing health flexible spending arrangements (“FSAs”) require cafeteria plans to forfeit unused amounts left in a participant’s health FSA at the end of a plan year. This so-called  “use-it-or-lose-it” rule was perceived as a significant barrier to health FSA participation by many employees, especially lower and moderate income employees.  They are more... READ MORE

Previous blog posts have highlighted the importance of analyzing, for purposes of both day-to-day operations and litigation strategy considerations, whether, as an initial matter, an individual can even invoke the anti-discrimination protections available under certain federal employment laws (e.g., Title VII, ADA, ADEA, ERISA). For example, our May 11, 2012 post analyzed whether a... READ MORE

NLRB Administrative Law Judge Says Ban Is Lawful An Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) has put at least a temporary stop to what many have seen as a trend to expand employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.  The NLRB General Counsel’s complaint filed against an employer, who maintained a policy prohibiting the recording... READ MORE