Category: legal update

We have previously written that employment law for the LGBT community is moving toward greater inclusiveness and stronger protections. For example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s landmark settlement of a sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit, along with prior precedent-setting cases establishing transgender protections under Title VII, seem emblematic of the direction LGBT law is heading. Here […]

On August 1, 2016, Massachusetts passed a law to establish pay equity by forbidding employers from discriminating on the basis of gender when employees do comparable work. In that respect, the Massachusetts law is similar to Maryland’s 2016 Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and to the California Fair Pay Act enacted in 2015. But […]

You’d think that it would be easy to fire an employee who was loud, who was often absent from her desk, who made and received cell phone calls at work, whose boyfriend often visited her there, and who insisted on text messaging supervisors about her absences instead of calling. And you’d probably be right. Unless […]

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues in August 2016. Retaliation occurs when an employer punishes an employee for engaging in protected activity, such as complaints of sexual harassment. Employment lawyer and blogger Eric B. Meyer summarizes the key points of retaliation in the workplace in his […]

On August 11, 2016, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a final rule amending the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations to incorporate changes made by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA). The DOJ regulations prohibit discrimination based on disability in state and local government programs and activities, while similar EEOC regulations prohibit […]

In 1970 the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) was created to assure safe and healthy working conditions by providing education and training to employers and employees, setting and enforcing workplace safety standards, and issuing citations and penalties to employers who don’t comply with those standards. Since 1996, most federal agencies have been allowed to […]

The US Supreme Court recently ruled on how far a federal corruption statute applies to international business. During the 1990s, cigarette smuggling in Europe and between the United States and Canada greatly increased. In fact, cigarette smuggling was so rampant that in 1994, Canada sharply cut its anti-smoking taxes to combat widespread smuggling from the […]

On May 18, 2016, the US Department of Labor (DOL) issued a rule that doubled the salary that employees must make to be exempt from the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) under the “white collar” or EAP exemption for administrative, executive, and professional employees. In addition to […]

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a final rule raising the penalty from $210 to $525 for failing to post the “Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law” poster. The poster is required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), […]

On April 4, 2016, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited interpretation of the California law requiring “suitable seats” for most employees. The “suitable seats” regulation has been in the California Wage Orders since at least 1980 (and can be traced back to a 1911 regulation requiring the mercantile industry to “provide suitable seats for […]