Members of our Labor & Employment practice and Healthcare industry group discuss the long-awaited Final Rules amending the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”) that were released on September 9, 2024. The full post is available on our sister blog, Triage Health Law.… Continue Reading
Welcome to Part 2 of the 2021 Year-End Edition of the State Law Round-Up, covering states in the second half of the alphabet. Part 1, covering the first part of the alphabet, can be found here. Maine: Maine’s “ban-the-box” law, HP 845, went into effect October 18, 2021. The law prohibits private employers from requesting … Continue Reading
Here are two more answers to questions raised at our “Employment Law in 2021 and Beyond” webinar last week. Answers to the immigration-related questions are on their way. If you make representations to the non-compete consultation, will your name be published? When might we see an outcome from that consultation? Do we know when the … Continue Reading
Thank you to all those who signed up for our “Employment Law in 2021 and Beyond” webinar on 23rd February. Over 400 people dialled in for the session, so our profuse apologies but maybe little wonder that we did not get to answer all the questions raised. As promised, here are a couple of the … Continue Reading
So there it is, Boris’s long-heralded 4 Step plan for the country to move forward into our new future. Lots of statistics, cautions and caveats, but what does the 60-page “COVID-19 Response – Spring 2021” document presented to Parliament yesterday contain for employers? Is there anything new or is it, like the paper the original … Continue Reading
The world of work has remained broadly the same for the last 100 to 200 years – offices might have lost the wood panelling, trains become less smoky (inside and out!), top hats turned into bowler hats then no hats, beards have gone in, out, then back into fashion, but the central tenet remains – … Continue Reading
What a difference a week makes. By now, businesses, offices and families all across the United Kingdom are coming to terms with the recommendation that (where possible) people self-isolate as the UK Government seeks to “spread the peak” of the Coronavirus pandemic. Ignoring the seismic impact this has had upon businesses and industries, there is … Continue Reading
You are hearing the appeal of an employee with less than two years’ service dismissed on the grounds of admitted poor conduct. What can possibly go wrong? Certainly not the seeming afterthought on the employee’s part, not mentioned at the dismissal stage, that her conduct might in part be explained by a depressive condition of … Continue Reading
Last week it would have been difficult to miss the statistics: mental health affects 1 in 4 of us. In reality, it affects far more indirectly. Many people will have been affected by the mental health of a colleague, a friend or a family member. In addition, anyone with experience of mental health problems will … Continue Reading
The news today will be full of stories about mental health, aimed at raising awareness of this critical issue. Similarly, many companies will be running events to support employees’ mental health, encouraging them to feel comfortable disclosing their any issues and to seek support. This is all very laudable and forms an important part of … Continue Reading
Most successful businesses want to grow but what do they mean? Greater size and/or number of sites, higher output, income and/or profit, larger headcount or a more prominent media profile? Many see internal investment as the panacea to growth but that also means different things to different businesses – for manufacturing businesses, for example, it … Continue Reading
Come January 1, 2018, employees in California and New York will enjoy new and expanded rights to time off work, with pay, to attend to certain family needs. New York, whose law was enacted in 2016 (see our prior post here), boasts its law as being the nation’s “strongest and most comprehensive” on paid family … Continue Reading
Much has been written over the last month or so about Mental Health, and rightly so. It has now overtaken back pain as the principal cause of workplace absence in the UK. Anything which encourages an environment in which mental health issues may be more openly discussed and genuine sufferers’ sense of isolation or embarrassment … Continue Reading
Today saw the publication of the Thriving at Work report commissioned by the Prime Minister in January this year and written by Paul Farmer CBE, Chief Executive of MIND and Lord Stevenson, the former Chairman of HBOS who has been open about his own struggle with clinical depression. This is a far reaching report, a … Continue Reading
According to ACAS, “at least one in four of us will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in our lives”. A scary statistic, but scarier still is the prospect that this creates an annual cost for UK employers of £30 billion from both absences and “presenteeism” (i.e. turning up for work when … Continue Reading
What do we mean when we talk about “mental health”? The World Health Organisation defines mental health as: “a state of well-being in which every individual realises his/her potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.” The … Continue Reading
As you may have noticed, today is the fourth annual “Time to Talk” day. The purpose of the Time to Talk day is to seek to break down the stigma of mental health issues and spark conversations, not only to aid recovery but also to help people with their personal and professional relationships and to … Continue Reading
On December 12, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published a resource document explaining the legal rights of workers with mental health conditions under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Each year, approximately 5% of charges filed with the EEOC allege discrimination or harassment based on mental health conditions. While not announcing new law, the guidance … Continue Reading
When you sign up a Settlement Agreement with an ex-employee you think that’s the end of the matter, right? Clearly that is the general intention, but we already know that even the most procedurally prim and proper settlement agreement can be undone by evidence that it was entered into by fraud or misrepresentation and now … Continue Reading
Many employers maintain policies that restrict the amount of time an employee can take off from work, or that prohibit employees who are ineligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to take time off from work at all even when ill or injured. But a new resource document issued by the EEOC … Continue Reading
It is a common issue facing employers; you want to start or take next steps with a grievance or disciplinary investigation. To do the right thing you want to meet with the employee to discuss your concerns but the worker is on sick leave or goes sick, often citing work-related stress. Can you contact the … Continue Reading
An interesting new defence to discriminatory harassment claims has been trialled this month by none other than former London Mayor, Ken Livingstone. Our Ken was recently appointed to a senior role in Labour’s Defence Review. Objections were heard from a number of quarters including Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones on the seemingly not unreasonable grounds … Continue Reading
Today is National Stress Awareness Day in the United Kingdom. This is not to be confused with National Stress Awareness Day in the United States (16th April), or indeed National Stress Awareness Month (also in the US and also April). Quite why April is more stressful in the US and November is more stressful in … Continue Reading
Today is National Stress Awareness Day, though another long and difficult journey on Thameslink this morning means that actually I am quite stress–aware enough already, thank you for asking. This is not another of those pieces about the business case for countering sources of stress in your workplace. That is too obvious to bear repetition. … Continue Reading
