Protecting Employers Since 1985

State Attorney Generals Sue EEOC Saying Guidance On Gender Identity Is Overreaching

By Joseph H. Laverty / May 30, 2024

Numerous State Attorney Generals filed suit in May 2024 claiming the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) enforcement guidance on harassment in the workplace went too far in trying to legislate protections around gender identity that go beyond what the U.S. Supreme Court established in the 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision. The last time the…

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EEOC Issues Controversial Final Enforcement Guidance On Workplace Harassment

By James B. Sherman / April 30, 2024

On Monday this week the EEOC raised eyebrows when it published its long-awaited final take on harassment law. The guidance is aimed at educating employers and employees alike, but will no doubt be used by plaintiff and defense lawyers in court. Consequently, employers, HR professionals, and consultants are well advised to become aware of what…

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Attention Employers: New Federal Law Protecting Pregnant Workers

By Anthony J. Caruso Jr. / August 29, 2023

On June 27, 2023, the new federal law, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) went into effect.  Who is covered under the new law? Private and public sector employers with at least 15 employees, Congress, Federal agencies, employment agencies, and labor organizations. Note: employees and job applicants are covered by this law. What does the law…

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Employers: EEOC Guidelines regarding Covid-19

By Jennifer Adams Murphy / March 17, 2020

The EEOC has issued the following guidance regarding the difficult issues facing employers in their efforts to identify and control Covid-19. While the ADA still, of course, applies to employers’ conduct, limited exceptions have been made to allow employers to, for example, take employees’ temperatures to identify those who may have the virus. The guidelines…

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He Who Hesitates May be Lost

By Walter J. Liszka / July 8, 2019

While the statement “he who hesitates may be lost” has been around for decades, it may be the underpinning of a very recent Supreme Court decision. In a unanimous decision issued by the United States Supreme Court on June 3, 2019 (Fort Bend County vs. Davis, No. 18-525, Argued 4/22/19; Decided 6/3/19) the Supreme Court…

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EEOC Collection Of Employer Pay Data On Target For September

By James B. Sherman / April 30, 2019

In 2016, under the Obama administration, the EEOC significantly revised its EEO-1 report to require that covered entities – private employers with 100 or more employees, or federal contractors with at least 50 employees – begin to report how much they pay workers, broken down between sex, race and ethnicity. The stated rationale for this…

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EEOC Charges At 12-Year Low

By Walter J. Liszka / April 22, 2019

Workers filed 8,000 fewer charges in Fiscal Year 2018 (October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018) when the EEOC took in 76,418 charges. This total is the lowest since Fiscal 2006 when the agency took in a little under 76,000 charges. The “breakdown of charges” is as follows: Approximately 39,000 charges alleging retaliation; 24,600 charges…

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EEOC Lawsuits Demonstrate An Aggressive Position On Employer Obligations To Reasonably Accommodate

By James B. Sherman / January 10, 2019

Employers have a legal obligation to accommodate work-related conflicts posed by an employee’s or applicant’s disability or religious beliefs. This seems simple enough – be “reasonable.” Yet as many business professionals and lawyers know all too well, there is a great deal of room for differences of opinion as to what constitutes a “reasonable accommodation.”…

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No Fault Attendance Policies

By Walter J. Liszka / August 28, 2018

It has become a “sign of the times” that many Employers, rather than attempting to negotiate the maze of potential Legal Issues with regard to Employee Absences for sickness, child care, etc., have gravitated to what has become identified as the “No Fault Attendance Policy”. Under a No Fault Attendance Policy, Employees are assigned certain…

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Employers Need to Remain Diligent Regarding Discrimination/Retaliation Investigations in 2018

By Joseph H. Laverty / January 5, 2018

On November 15, 2017, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued its annual performance and accountability report. In the report the EEOC states that: “offices deployed new strategies to more efficiently prioritize charges with merit and more quickly resolved investigations once the agency had sufficient information. Together with improvements in the agency’s digital systems, these…

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