News

EEOC sues Blood Bank of Hawaii for terminating employees needing more leave than FMLA allowed:

https://lnkd.in/guicx_Q

Employers should keep engaging in the interactive process and only deny accommodations or proceed with terminations once they have established an undue hardship, preferably backed by medical documentation. The other possibility is where there is a clear lack of participation/communication in the interactive process by the employee.

The EEOC sued UPS for maintaining an "inflexible" leave policy that terminated employees automatically after being out on leave for more than 12 months.

While few employers are likely to be expected to accommodate such a long and extended leave, the issue here was the total lack of any interactive process.  

- Current DACA recipients can keep their deferred action period and their employment authorization documents (EADs) until they expire, unless terminated or revoked. 

- DACA benefits are generally good two years from the issue date.

Official Relief for EEO-1 Filers: Last week the federal Office of Management and Budget directed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop requiring employers to report pay information as part of a new EEO-1 report. https://lnkd.in/gHAGFWt

The EEOC's controversial rule and data collection program would have required companies with 100+ employees and federal contractors with 50 +), to spend significant time and money on gathering and sorting wage and hour information and then reporting that information based on employees' race, gender, and ethnicity.

The report is a good road map for keeping campuses & workplaces free from abuse and harassment. See link in comments below. Per the report, 110+ private schools are accused of sexual assault occurring on campus and “90+ lawsuits/legal claims have been filed on behalf of alleged victims.

The report recommends that schools (& employers) strengthen policies, investigation procedures, and response plans by:

Federal Court Rules for the First Time that Federal Law Does Not Prohibit Employing Illegal Drug Users.

Employee suffering PTSD was prescribed Medijuana by her doctor, registered with Connecticut's Department of Consumer Protection, and notified her employer before taking her pre-employment drug test that she took Marinol at night before bed.

Oregon becomes the first state to require large employers to provide employees with advance notice of schedules.

Come July 1, 2018, employers with 500+ employees must give employees "good faith estimates" of their work schedules at least 7 days in advance. Come July 1, 2020, that notice period increases to 14 days. Other gems from the new law:

Staffing agency clients, franchises, and other workforce contractors may soon have reason to breath a sigh of relief . A standalone bi-partisan bill on the hill takes aim at the NLRB's infamous Browning-Ferris decision. That 2015 ruling expanded the definition of joint employment, going from a decades-old "direct and immediate control" standard to a much broader "indirect control" standard.

Per a recent D.C. Circuit ruling, unions are still presumed to have access to your witness statements before an arbitration hearing. See https://lnkd.in/gQwT-rW

HR and Employers should ensure they can offer “substantial justification" for withholding witness statements as confidential. While there is no bullet-proof protection, a few things can help protect confidentiality of witness statements:

Employers breathed a sigh of relief in late 2016 when a Federal court stayed the new regulation that was set to double the minimum salary threshold for managers to be exempt from overtime.

Now the DOL is asking for input on how to proceed. Interested parties have until September 25, 2017, to submit comments.