2. How to avoid your organization’s muppet manifesto
1. A letter to the NLRB on its latest position against confidential workplace investigations
4. New pregnancy legislation is unneeded; the law already requires accommodation of expecting employees
3. NLRB’s position on social media policies remains a bungled mess
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6. Even terminations over “genitalia sandwiches” can generate lawsuits
5. Does your social media policy educate about being “profersonal?”
8. When defending employment cases, chasing attorneys’ fees is a snipe hunt
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10. The 5 little words that will cause your company a huge headache
9. Firing an employee? Tell them! (don’t Milton the termination)
2. “If I could press a button and instantly vaporize one sector of employment law?”
My answer—the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA needs to go because compliance is impossible…. I would bet any employer in this country a free wage and hour audit that I can find an FLSA violation in your pay practices. A regulatory scheme that is impossible to meet does not make sense to keep alive. Instead, what employers and employees need is a more streamlined system to ensure that workers are paid a fair wage.
1. The Employer’s Bill of Rights
After nearly 15 years representing employers in workplace disputes, the one conclusion that I can reach with absolute certainty is that American employees do not lack workplace rights. There is a veritable alphabet soup of laws that protects employees…. The only group in the country that lacks workplace rights is employers. We are the marginalized and the unprotected, living in fear of making any personnel decisions because they might result in expensive lawsuits. Employers, I feel your pain, and present the Employer’s Bill of Rights.
4. Charlie Sheen and the National Labor Relations Board
CBS fired Charlie Sheen, in part because he made public disparaging comments about his boss. Charlie Sheen is a member of SAG. He also has his own “performance” problems. Should he file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, based on his own protected, concerted activity—for example, calling his boss a “stupid, stupid little man and a pussy punk”; a “piece of shit”; a “turd”; and a “clown”?
3. NLRB says a “f**ktard” is different than a “d*ck” under Section 7
In American Medical Response, the NLRB argued that calling one’s boss a “d*ck” is “not so opprobrious as to lose the protections of the Act” because the “name-calling was not accompanied by any verbal or physical threats.” Yet, in Schulte, Roth & Zabel, the NLRB points out that Section 7 does not protect the “f**ktard” post. What’s the difference, other than the fact that your employees are now aware that they have rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and will run to the NLRB if fired or disciplined for their social media activities?
6. EEOC sues for disabled shoplifter
You might think that a $1.39 bag of chips, for which the employee later paid, is not a fireable offense. Yet, no rule is more important to a retailer than its no-shoplifting rule. Most stores have zero tolerance policies, both for customers and employees. It may seem unreasonable to fire a diabetic employee over one bag of chips. Consider, however, that the employer might not want to set a precedent that it is acceptable to eat food off the shelf without paying for it first.
5. The most important thing you need to know about the ADAAA’s regulations
While the regulations make clear that “not every impairment will constitute a disability,” because of the ADAAA’s expansive definition of disability, most will…. In other words, employers should give up hope that they will be able to prove that an employee’s medical condition does not qualify as a disability. Instead, employers should focus their ADA compliance efforts on the two issues that now matter in these cases: avoiding discrimination and providing reasonable accommodations.
8. What does St. Patrick have to do with human resources?
Legend tells us that in the 5th century, St. Patrick banished all snakes from Ireland. In honor of the day that celebrates Ireland’s patron saint, consider banishing the following metaphorical snakes from your HR practices.
7. How do other cultures handle HR?
Monsters, Inc., holds a special place in my heart. It was the first movie my wife and I saw together. As an employment lawyer, then, the following sign at the Mike & Sully meet and greet at Disney’s Hollywood Studios struck exactly the right note…. Interestingly, the last bullet point shows that even Monstropolis sees the importance of covering social media in workplace policies.
10. Unstable employees, direct threats, and the ADA
Employers faced with a legitimate and potentially dangerous employee need not wait for the powder keg to explode. Instead, employers can treat the employee as a “direct threat” and separate the individual from employment.
9. Wal-Mart v. Dukes does not equal barefoot and pregnant
There is no doubt that by limiting class actions, Wal-Mart was a big win for businesses. But let’s not confuse what Wal-Mart is for what it is not. It is not a death blow to women’s rights in the workplace. It will not eliminate all of the good that Title VII has done for women (and its other protected classes). It will not take us back in time to the days of June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson…. So let’s not overreact to the Wal-Mart decision by arguing that its impact will take women back to the stone age, or, worse, the 1950s. Such knee-jerk overreactions unnecessarily polarize us into positions that do nothing to further the debate over the real issue—eliminating workplace discrimination.
1. Activist Federal Agencies. President Obama’s labor and employment legislative agenda may be a been a big dud, but that has not stopped the EEOC, the NLRB, and especially the DOL (and here, and here, and here, and here) from picking up the torch and running with it. And, as we've seen over the last couple of weeks, as big as story has been in 2011, it is poised to be even bigger in 2011. Employers, be afraid.
There you have it—the top 10 labor and employment stories of the past year. Everyone have a safe and happy new year. I’ll be back on January 3 with fresh content.
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.
4. Lactation Breaks. One of the lesser heralded provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (better known as the Health Care Reform Bill) is section 4207, which provides reasonable break time for nursing mothers. All employers with 50 or more employees (and most with less than 50 employees) are required to provide nursing mom’s as many unpaid breaks as needed, in a private space other than a bathroom, to express breast milk.
3. Pregnancy Leave Rights. In June, the Ohio Supreme Court clarified that Ohio’s pregnancy discrimination statute does not require that employer provide pregnant women greater leave rights than other employees. Two months later, the 6th Circuit likely took away part of this gift by holding that pregnancy-related impairments that are not part of a “normal” pregnancy qualify as an ADA-protected disability.
(And thank you everyone for your votes in the ABA Blawg 100 -- today is the last day for voting)
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.
6. The Intersection of Privacy and Technology. Quon v. Arch Wireless may not have resolved the issue of employee privacy rights in employer-owned equipment, but it at least framed the scope of the debate: “Cell phone and text message communications are so pervasive that some persons may consider them to be essential means or necessary instruments for self-expression, even self identification. That might strengthen the case for an expectation of privacy. On the other hand, the ubiquity of those devices has made them generally affordable, so one could counter that employees who need cell phones or similar devices for personal matters can purchase and pay for their own. And employer policies concerning communications will of course shape the reasonable expectations of their employees, especially to the extent that such policies are clearly communicated.”
5. Courts Begin to Apply the ADAAA, and No Employer is Safe. The ADA Amendments Act went into effect almost two years ago, on January 1, 2009. Because it is not retroactive, however, its effects are only just starting to be seen in the courts. 2010 was the year that courts began to apply the amended law’s expansive definition of “disability.” The result—virtually no medical condition is safe from being considered a disability protected by the ADA.
(Only today and tomorrow to get your votes in. Thank you to everyone who's voted in the ABA Blawg 100)
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.
8. The EEOC Declares Open Season on Background Checks. Do you conduct background checks on employees before hiring them? If so, you might be in the EEOC’s crosshairs, as the agency targets credit histories and criminal histories and screening tools. Congress got in the action as well, considering legislation to ban the use of credit information in employment.
7. The EEOC Issues Its GINA Regulations. Last month, the EEOC finally published its long-awaited regulations interpreting the employment provisions of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Given the breadth of the regulations, I expect genetic information discrimination to be a growing trend in 2011.
(Only three days left to vote - ABA Blawg 100)
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.
10. The Year of the Class Action. In May, a federal jury awarded a class of 5,600 Novartis female sales reps and entry-level managers $250 million to remedy systemic discrimination against women of child-bearing age. That huge verdict notwithstanding, what made 2010 the year of the class action was the Supreme Court’s agreement to hear the appeal of the multi-billion dollar Dukes sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart.
9. The Supreme Court’s Employment Law Docket. In the last quarter of 2010, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in three employment cases: Kasten v. St. Gobain (which will decide whether a purely oral complaint triggers the FLSA’s anti-retaliation provision), Staub v. Proctor Hosp. (which will decide the viability of the Cat’s Paw in discrimination cases), and Thompson v. N. Am. Stainless (which will decided whether Title VII prohibits an employer from retaliating by inflicting reprisals on a third party closely associated with the employee who engaged in such protected activity but who engaged in no protected activity of his or her own).
(Don't forget to vote - ABA Blawg 100)
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.
1. Social Media. 2009 was the year that social media exploded onto our cultural consciousness. Facebook has enough members to be the 4th largest country in the world, and Twitter (follow me @jonhyman) synthesized thoughts down to 140 characters. If you don’t think you’re employees are Friending each other or tweeting about your business, you are either naive or have ludites for employees. For more information about the impact of social media on your business and your employees, check out the following from this year:
There you have it – the top 10 labor and employment stories of the past year. Everyone have a safe and happy new year. I’ll be back on January 4 with a peak at what I think will be the 5 biggest stories to follow in 2010.
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.
3. The Obama Administration’s DOL & EEOC. True to his word, President Obama has prioritized the plight of the working-class. One need only scan the EEOC’s press releases to see that it has significantly ramped up its prosecution of EEO violations. Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced that it is hiring an additional 50 attorneys to increase its enforcement of civil rights violations. The Department of Labor has hired 250 new investigators to step up enforcement of its Wage & Hour Division, specifically to target industries that employ vulnerable workers, such as agriculture, restaurants, janitorial, construction, and car washes.
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.