The ongoing opioid epidemic is causing employers to consider the best ways to ensure a safe workplace, but companies should be careful when addressing employees’ prescription drug use. Recent court filings and settlements by the EEOC illustrate the potential pitfalls employers face when attempting to implement a drug-free workplace.
Continue Reading Employers’ Prescription Drug Use Policies Coming Under Scrutiny

Employers in the retail sector are constantly faced with the balancing act of relying on their workforce to operate a profitable business while also managing employees who are unable to work at full capacity due to an illness or disability. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently issued an opinion shedding some light on when leave constitutes reasonable accommodation under the ADA.
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Rejects Extended Leave as Reasonable Accommodation Under ADA

On January 22, 2017, the City of Los Angeles will ‘ban the box’ when the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring goes into effect, prohibiting private employers in Los Angeles “from inquiring into or seeking a job applicant’s criminal history unless and until a conditional offer of employment” is made to the individual.
Continue Reading LA’s Law Banning the Box for Private Employers Effective This Month

Recently, the EEOC has announced the approval of a revised EEO-1 report. In addition to the disclosures required currently, the Revised Report will require employers with 100 or more employees to provide compensation data and the number of hours worked by employees across 12 separate pay bands, categorized by gender, race and ethnicity.
Continue Reading EEOC Requires Disclosure of Pay Data in Revised EEO-1 Report

Recently, the federal government has highlighted the issue of religious discrimination and accommodation in the workplace. Given the diversity of most workplaces, especially retailers, employers should be particularly sensitive to the potential risks of religious discrimination and harassment claims, as well as its obligations to accommodate reasonable religious-based requests for workplace changes.
Continue Reading Government Raising Awareness Regarding Religious Discrimination in the Workplace

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has implemented nationwide procedures which require all EEOC offices to release copies of an employer’s entire position statement, together with all non-confidential documents submitted in support of the position statement, to an employee who has filed a discrimination charge, or his or her representative (including attorneys). These procedures apply to all position statements requested after January 1, 2016.
Continue Reading EEOC’s New Policy – Employer’s Position Statement Shown to Employee

On March 1, 2016, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued employers for the first time for sexual orientation discrimination. The EEOC filed lawsuits in federal courts in Pittsburgh and Baltimore against manufacturing and health care employers for unlawful sex discrimination on behalf of employees alleging they were harassed and discriminated against based on their sexual orientation.
Continue Reading EEOC Brings First Sexual Orientation Discrimination Lawsuits