Allyn & Fortuna LLPPaula Lopez, June 5, 2015. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the case EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., reversing the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision holding that Abercrombie could not be held liable on a religious discrimination claim for failure to accommodate. In an 8-1 decision reversing a decision of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that Title VII requires employers to make efforts to accommodate an applicant or employee’s “religious observance and practice”…
Paula Lopez, May 12, 2015. On May 6, 2015, Mayor Bill De Blasio signed into law Bill A-261A, which amends the New York City Human Rights Law (NYC HRL) to prohibit employers, labor organizations and employment agencies from conducting credit checks as part of their hiring process and from discriminating against an applicant or employee based on credit history. Although the new law provides for certain exemptions where employers are permitted to request and rely on credit-related information, the exemptions are limited. Employers with four or more employees…
Paula Lopez, February 20, 2015. It is important for employers to always implement proper policies as a tool for staving off litigation. While doing so employers should understand that the statements contained in their policies are binding on them in the same manner that they would be on their employees. Therefore, they should take the proper steps to ensure that their policies accurately reflect the state of the law so as to not expose themselves to legal liability that otherwise could be avoided. A Michigan employer learned this…
Paula Lopez, October 16, 2014. Last week, in the case Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument on whether warehouse workers are entitled to overtime pay for time spent waiting to pass through employer mandated security checks after they had already clocked out for the day. The plaintiffs were former warehouse workers in Nevada employed by Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. a company that provides warehouse space and staffing to Amazon.com and similar clients. The plaintiffs worked in two warehouses in Nevada as hourly employees…
Paula Lopez, September 18, 2014. New Jersey has become the sixth state to enact “ban the box” legislation, restricting private employers within its state from inquiring into an applicant’s criminal record during the initial application process. It is called the “Opportunity to Compete Act” and was signed into law by Governor Christie on August 11, 2014, but does not go into effect until March 1, 2015. The version of the law that was passed is a compromise between the employers’ interests in making fully-informed hiring decisions and the…
Paula Lopez, August 27, 2014. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a ruling in the case Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille affirming the administrative law judge’s decision that two employees who were terminated because of their involvement in Facebook discussions about claims that their employer had made State tax withholding errors were unlawfully discharged in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This decision is significant on two fronts. First, because Vincent Spinella’s (one of the terminated employees) only involvement in the…
Paula Lopez, July 31, 2014. Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that will provide unpaid interns throughout the State of New York with the same state law protections against discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace as paid employees. The amended law takes effect immediately. Until recently, only unpaid interns in Oregon and Washington D.C. were similarly protected. Earlier this year, the New York City Council, by unanimous vote, passed an amendment to the City’s Human Rights Law, extending its anti-discrimination and anti-harassment provisions to unpaid interns….
Paula Lopez, May 28, 2014. On April 22, 2014, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in EEOC v. Ford Motor Co., rejected Ford’s position that its employee’s presence at the workplace is necessary to perform her essential job functions and found that Ford failed to establish that telecommuting, in this instance, would impose an undue hardship on an employer obligated to provide a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In doing so, the Sixth Circuit upended the typical deference given to an employer’s…
Paula Lopez, May 8, 2014. As the trend of e-commerce and the offer of goods and services through websites and mobile applications have increased, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has stepped up enforcement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure that individuals with disabilities have equal access to sites offering such goods and services online. Title III of the ADA prohibits places of public accommodation from discriminating against disabled individuals with respect to access to goods, services, programs, and facilities offered by such public accommodations. The…
Paula Lopez, April 2, 2014. Employers are not blind to employees’ use of social media in and out of the workplace and they have a business interest in protecting confidential information, brand/image, employee morale and productivity, and insulating themselves from legal liability. As a result, employers should establish a social media policy regarding their employees’ use of employer-issued devices and their social media activities. Creating a comprehensive social media policy is important. Such a policy should specifically identify permitted and prohibited conduct, without being overly restrictive, and should…