On March 14, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a new technical assistance document, “The COVID-19 Pandemic and Caregiver Discrimination Under Federal Employment Discrimination Law,” reminding employers that caregiver obligations continue notwithstanding our gradual return to normal. The 10-page document warns that, even as pandemic conditions change, many employers, schools, and daycare … Continue Reading
In June 2020, we added a post to Employment Law Worldview addressing the complicated situation employers are in when employees express – sometime respectfully, sometimes not – different, and indeed, opposite views on COVID-19 issues (e.g., legitimate public health emergency versus hoax or “plandemic”), racial justice (“Black Lives Matter” versus “All Lives Matter”), and politics … Continue Reading
After the recent high-profile deaths of Black Americans due to police use of force, discussions of systemic racism are now front and center in all organizations. Please join Squire Patton Boggs partners Carmen Cole, Meghan Hill and Katharine Liao on Thursday, July 23 at 1 p.m. EDT for an open and candid discussion about the … Continue Reading
As the daily news continues to show protests and calls for justice in response to the death of George Floyd and others at the hands of police officers, there is, unsurprisingly, a desire from employees to hear from their employers regarding the ongoing violence and racial unrest in our communities and across the country. Many … Continue Reading
We’re living through a period of time in the US unlike any we have previously experienced, simultaneously grappling with a deadly public health emergency, mass protests – some peaceful, some not – seeking racial justice and police reform, and an increasingly bitter, partisan political landscape that likely only will intensify as we get closer to … Continue Reading
At this stage we are still waiting for the final regulations on the new mandatory gender pay gap reporting obligations. This current series of blog posts is therefore based on what we know from the draft regulations and discussions around them. In terms of which employers will be caught by the new gender pay gap … Continue Reading
Sometimes people get confused between the gender pay gap and equal pay. They are not all the same thing. The gender pay gap measures the difference between men and women’s average pay. Equal pay, on the other hand, is the legal obligation under the Equality Act 2010 that requires employers to give men and women … Continue Reading
Over the next few weeks into the New Year we are going to publish a series of short blog posts on gender pay gap reporting in the UK, based on the questions we have been asked by clients and contacts in recent months. By the time we get to the end of our series, the … Continue Reading
The Government announced in September its intention to undertake a full public consultation on the issue of caste and the Equality Act – a consideration which has been contemplated since the enactment of the Act in 2010. The aim of the consultation is to obtain views from the public on whether the Act requires additional … Continue Reading
It is sadly impossible to write anything critical about a report on sexual harassment in the workplace without coming over like some frightful old golf club misogynist. To be clear, therefore, none of what follows seeks to belittle the distress of those genuinely harassed at work, but balance nonetheless dictates a counter-point to the TUC’s … Continue Reading
New legislation to protect employees sent from outside the country to work for a limited time in Poland came into effect on 18 June. The legislation implements just in time the EU Posted Workers Directive, which Member States were required to bring into force within two years of June 2014. The new legislation is intended … Continue Reading
In a potentially groundbreaking decision that increases legal protections throughout the U.S. for lesbian, gay and bisexual employees, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled on June 15, 2015, that existing civil rights law bars sexual orientation-based employment discrimination. The EEOC addressed the question of whether the ban on sex discrimination in Title VII … Continue Reading
The National Labor Relations Board repeatedly has found that employers that unilaterally grant a wage increase prior to an impasse in collective bargaining, or absent extenuating circumstances, engage in an unfair labor practice. Thus, in an effort to avoid bargaining-related charges, employers typically seek to avoid making any changes to wages (or benefits) while bargaining … Continue Reading
On March 16, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals – which has jurisdiction over appeals from Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming – drove home that when it comes to jury instructions, the devil is in the details. Reasoning that a lower court jury “might have relied on the erroneous direct-threat standard,” the … Continue Reading
On March 12, Utah Governor Herbert signed into law S.B. 296, which amends the Utah Antidiscrimination Act to prohibit discrimination in employment by Utah employers on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Notably, and perhaps not surprisingly given that 60% of Utah residents identify as Mormons, although the law had the support of … Continue Reading
The EEOC has pushed hard in recent years to curb employer use of background checks in hiring decisions (see our blog post here). In 2009, the EEOC filed suit against Freeman, a national provider of integrated services, alleging that Freeman relied on credit and criminal background checks that caused a disparate impact on black and … Continue Reading
On February 3, 2015, the EEOC’s Director of the Office of Field Programs issued a memorandum to the agency’s district directors regarding the handling of LGBT-related discrimination claims. Although Title VII does not explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of an employee’s identification as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, the memorandum states that the EEOC … Continue Reading
The 2010 Agency Worker Regulations require that once an agency worker has been in post for 12 weeks, he should receive the same pay as would a permanent employee of the hirer in the same role. This is the principle of equal treatment. Regulation 14(3) makes the agency liable for any breach of equal treatment … Continue Reading
The right for women to take time off work for antenatal appointments has been around for decades. In all that time, so far as I can tell, no one has felt it necessary to issue any clarification on how that right is exercised. From 1st October this year, however, fathers and other partners gain limited … Continue Reading
It was reported recently that the Royal Navy’s first female warship commander has been relieved of her post following allegations of an affair with an officer under her command (a comment on their working hierarchy rather than any judgment on their alleged romantic relationship, I should make clear). Sarah West is undoubtedly an important figure … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court has issued a 5-4 decision in which it found that closely-held for-profit corporations can avoid the mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires the provision of birth control coverage to their employees. In reaching their decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, the justices determined … Continue Reading
In the world of work in the UK there have been many decided cases and much official guidance to employers to the collective effect that if they respect the third of Mr Butler’s list, the Employment Tribunal will let them keep the other two. So why the uproar around Marks & Spencer last week, given … Continue Reading
What a shame. It would have been a great story, one almost worthy of the Daily Mail’s front page coverage of it last week. Apparently “sources close to” heavily-pregnant Equality Minister Jo Swinson reported her taking the view that it would have been “sexist” for any of male MPs to offer her his seat rather … Continue Reading