Squire Patton Boggs presents a webinar to provide an overview of the past year’s most significant labor and employment decisions and emerging areas of the law in the United States. On 5 December 2018 at 4 p.m. GMT (5 p.m. CET, 11 a.m. EST, 8 a.m. PST) Jill Kirila, our US Labor & Employment Practice … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs presents a series of webinars focusing on the key labour and employment issues in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the United States. Given in English by our local labour and employment law experts, each 60-minute webinar comprises a 50-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute online question and answer … Continue Reading
On August 29, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its final “Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues,” which replaced the Agency’s nearly-20-year-old 1998 Compliance Manual, Section 8: Retaliation. As the title clearly implies, the guidance primarily sets forth the Agency’s evolving interpretations of the law of retaliation. It also focuses on the … Continue Reading
A week ago, President Barack Obama announced further efforts by the White House and EEOC to combat gender pay equality issues. The momentum from last week’s announcement carried its way up the coast from the District of Columbia to the state legislature of New Jersey. Yesterday, New Jersey’s Senate Labor Committee approved Senate Bill 992 … Continue Reading
As promised in our previous post, today we conclude our predictions on President Obama’s 2016 executive activity. While we believe the President’s final executive orders will target immigration and perhaps even corporate political expenditures, we predict executive agency action will cover a broad range of pressing labor and employment issues. With federal legislative gridlock expected … 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
On February 2, 2015, President Obama released his proposal for the FY 2016 budget. In it he requests across the board funding increases for the Department of Labor (10.9% increase from FY 2015), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2.3% increase from FY 2015), and the National Labor Relations Board (1.4% increase from FY 2015). Considering the disparity between … Continue Reading
As the number of pregnancy discrimination lawsuits has increased, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), for the first time in over thirty years, issued a comprehensive guidance update on pregnancy discrimination last month. The EEOC’s guidance serves to clarify its position on a wide range of topics related to pregnancy discrimination as enforced under the … Continue Reading
On December 10, 2013, the Sixth Circuit formally adopted a new theory plaintiffs can use to hold entities liable under Title VII. In EEOC, et. al., v. Skanska USA Building, Inc., 2013 FED App. 1021N (6th Cir.), the Sixth Circuit found that Skanska, a general contractor, was liable under Title VII though Skanska did not … Continue Reading
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been concerned for quite a while about the disparate impact that the criminal background checks many employers run on applicants and employees may have a disparate impact on the basis of race and national origin. Specifically, the EEOC has been convinced since at least the 1980s that the … Continue Reading
Last Wednesday, the United States issued a final rule that will impact employer wellness programs starting January 1, 2014. This rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”), provides additional flexibility to employers with respect to the financial rewards that can be offered for achieving health-based … Continue Reading
Last Friday, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published the fifth edition of what is considered the “bible” for diagnosing mental disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or “DSM-5.” While much of the DSM-5 reclassifies already-recognized disorders or fleshes out diagnostic criteria, the APA recognizes several new disorders that could make life even … Continue Reading
On January 28, 2013, the Northern District of Ohio granted Defendant Kaplan Higher Education’s motion for summary judgment in EEOC v. Kaplan Higher Education Corp. The Court dismissed the matter because the EEOC failed to meet its burden of proving that Kaplan’s use of background checks had a “disparate impact” on minority applicants. In the case, … Continue Reading
As previously noted here, employers are required to provide qualified individuals who have a disability with a reasonable accommodation absent an undue hardship. Whether working from home is a reasonable accommodation is a fact intensive analysis that should be conducted for each circumstance. Earlier this week, a Michigan federal court dismissed the EEOC’s case against … Continue Reading
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), employers must provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified individual who has a disability absent an undue hardship to the employer. The ADA further provides that reassignment to a vacant position is a possible reasonable accommodation. Earlier this year, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in EEOC v. … Continue Reading
Formerly, Michigan [pdf] was the only state to explicitly declare weight a protected class according to state discrimination law. However, at both the state and federal level, administrative agencies and courts are beginning to contemplate whether legal protections should be afforded to obese individuals under state law and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Amendments … Continue Reading
The legal protections afforded transgender individuals in the workplace are relatively unclear, not to mention varied, across the country. Currently, sixteen states (and Washington D.C.), as well as numerous cities and counties, ban discrimination based on gender expression and gender identity. However, a federal bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), has been proposed and struck … Continue Reading
As promised in a previous post, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued new Enforcement Guidance concerning the use of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. The EEOC decided to update its policy statements after twenty-plus years because the rise of … Continue Reading
In response to mounting concern over the use of criminal records and credit reports to screen potential employees, Commissioner Victoria Lipnic of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on March 13, 2012, that the EEOC is “likely” to issue new guidance to employers on the use of both criminal history and credit background checks … Continue Reading
On Friday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a final rule which mandates that employers retain workplace records so that the agency is able to ensure compliance with the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act’s (GINA) prohibition of employment discrimination based on a worker’s genetic information. GINA prohibits the use of genetic information in making … Continue Reading
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. That’s the message of the EEOC’s Final Rule on the ADA Amendments, effective May 24, 2011. It took four town hall meetings, over 600 public comments, and almost two and a half years to issue the Final Rule. Isn’t it … Continue Reading
As reported in the New York Times by Catherine Rampell in More Workers Complain of Bias on the Job, a Trend Linked to Widespread Layoffs, employers are seeing an increase in accusations of discrimination. Discrimination claims including discrimination based on race, gender, disability and age continue to increase, but the most frequently filed charge with … Continue Reading
