News

Predictive Scheduling Laws Gaining Momentum: Snowball effect is in full force as more jurisdictions are looking at penalizing employers for not  providing and keeping to advanced work schedules.  New York City is the latest to propose that employers in the retail, financial services, health-care, and construction industries should pay: 

The Costly Dangers of Playing Doctor: Employer pays $800,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit alleging that the Company and the Company's doctor discriminated against employees and applicants.  

An electrical and gas utility in New York City allegedly violated the law by: 1) disqualifying applicants from work due to their disabilities, even though they could do the job with accommodations, 2) requiring medical exams before making conditional job offers, and 3) imposing improper medical restrictions that reduced earnings for disabled employees.  See link and citation in comments.

Minimum Wage Reminder for Hawaii Employers: If you are not already, you should be working on implementing increases to be ready for the new Hawaii minimum of  $10.10 starting January 1, 2018.

With lots of high profile examples of this lately, here are a few tips on dancing with the skeletons coming out of the closet:

1. Lock down and align response narratives. Gather team members that matter and outside counsel as needed to preserve privilege as much as possible.  Restrain premature urges to make excuses or apologize.  Slow the train to prevent premature comment or responses before a full investigation is completed.

Discrimination:  expands protections for military personnel by prohibiting discrimination in all “terms, conditions, or privileges” of employment.

Harassment Training: Employers with five+ employees must post a new workplace notice including transgender rights. 50+ employers must include specific harassment training on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. 

Starting October 31, 2017 in New York City and January 1, 2018 in California, employers will be prohibited  from asking about an applicant’s previous pay, whether asked orally, in writing, personally, or through an agent. 

Or., Mass., and Del. have passed similar laws set to take effect soon.  San Francisco's law is effective July 1 and also prohibits SF employers from releasing a current or former employee’s salary without their consent.  

Thanks to everyone who came out and participated in my "TruthSpotting" presentation at the SHRM State Conference last week.   It was great to see all my favorite HR professionals.  Hopefully next time we will have more time to catch up.

Restaurant refused to accommodate employee asking to wear a skirt instead of the blue jeans required by the company's dress policy.  

Shortly after being hired, the employee informed the company of her religious belief that women should wear only skirts or dresses.  She asked for the reasonable accommodation of wearing a blue skirt but the company refused her requests, saying that  the "owner” would “not stray away from” the company's dress code.

EEOC Sues Chipotle after upper management failed to intervene when male employee complained of female store manager's explicit sexual behavior and retaliation ensued.

Restaurant manager allegedly sexually harassed male shift manager at a San Jose store by discussing her own sex life, posting a daily "sex scoreboard" in the office to track the staff's sex lives, making lewd comments and propositions, and frequently groping and grabbing his privates.

Hawaii, Arizona, and Idaho employers may assign some non-tip generating duties and still take the tip credit without minute-by-minute tracking of tipped vs. non-tipped duties.  See Marsh v. J. Alexander's LLC, No. 15-15791 (9th Cir. Sept. 6, 2017).

A waiter at an Arizona restaurant claimed he was entitled to non-tip-credit pay for every minute he spent on non-tipped work because he spent over 20% of his time doing non-tipped tasks and "not related" activities.