2015 Blog

In its continuing legal crusade to prevent workplace discrimination against transgender employees, the EEOC has sued a Lakeland, Florida, eye care facility and quickly settled the case for a $150,000.00 payment and the institution of an employee training program. The settling employer is Lakeland Eye Clinic, P.A. (“LEC”), an organization of health care professionals including…

No, not if you are engaging in “protected, concerted” activity, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In another in a continuing series of decisions protecting employees who post negative comments online on Facebook about their employers, a three-member panel of the NLRB has ordered that Hernan Perez be reinstated to his server’s job…

It is always a good idea for private sector employers to review their employee handbooks or manuals periodically to make sure that they are in compliance with constantly changing local, state, and federal workplace laws and court and agency decisions. A recent memorandum issued by the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB),…

Effective on January 1, 2015, a new U.S. Labor Department regulation will extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers, one of the fastest-growing occupations in the country. About two million Americans will benefit from the new policy in that they will now be protected by the minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping provisions…

Acting unilaterally to expand federal civil rights laws to protect transgenders in the workplace – although Congress has failed to do so – the Obama Administration has announced that it will push forward with its own interpretation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Reversing the prior position of the U.S. Justice Department,…

The National Labor Relations Board has decided, 3-2, that employees have a right to use their employers’ e-mail systems for communicating about union organizing during breaks and other nonworking time. The 76-page decision, which favors labor unions, overruled a seven-year-old board ruling which had found the opposite. In doing so, the Board gave preference to…

If it is approved in the next Florida legislative session, a proposed new state law would prohibit private employers from inquiring into, or considering, a job applicant’s criminal history on an initial employment application. Such screenings would only be allowed after the employer has determined that a job applicant meets the minimum requirements to qualify…

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued four revised guidance documents regarding protection against disability discrimination, pursuant to the goal of the agency’s Strategic Plan to provide up-to-date guidance on the requirements of antidiscrimination laws. The documents address how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to job applicants and existing employees with…

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues, along with a question and answer document about the guidance, and a Fact Sheet for Small Businesses. They are all available free online at eeoc.gov. (See URLs below). This is the first comprehensive update of the…

More than 500,000 employers now use E-Verify in about 1.5-million workplaces, the federal government’s free online service that allows United States employers to confirm their new employees’ eligibility to work in this country. U.S. law requires companies to employ only individuals who may legally work in the United States – either U.S. citizens or foreign…