Management’s Workplace Blog – Information and Insights for Employers
The NLRB has issued a series of decisions in recent months finding various employee handbook provisions unlawful. The Labor Board’s scrutiny of handbooks continued recently in another case, Direct TV.
In that case, the employer promulgated the following rule:
If law enforcement wants to interview or obtain information regarding a Direct TV employee, whether
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On January 25, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB over the past two years are unconstitutional because the appointments did not occur while the Senate was in a formal recess (Republican members of the Senate, during the period that normally would…
With the New Year, we see many lists offering “predictions” about what will happen in 2013 – one of my favorites is the location of the upcoming nuptials between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (an estate in France or a tent in Namibia appear to be the likely contenders).
How about one for labor and…
The Labor Board has released its long-awaited second “Facebook case.” To nobody’s surprise, the NLRB has largely adopted the ALJ decision that the Facebook postings in question constitute protected concerted activity under Section 7.
In Hispanics United of Buffalo, an employee threatened to report several of her co-workers to management who she felt did…
Almost every nonunion company’s employee handbook has the standard clause: employment is at-will. This indisputably is a permissible term of employment, right? The answer to that question depends on how the policy is phrased. According to recent pronouncements from the NLRB, if a “reasonable employee” could read such a policy as making unionization futile, then…
On October 1, 2012, Maryland’s first-in-the-nation law prohibiting employers from requiring – or even requesting – that employees provide pass codes to personal websites and devices took effect. Colloquially, this is the “Facebook Privacy Right.” Employers that fail to hire an applicant or discipline or discharge an employee for refusing to disclose a personal pass…
Do you think it could possibly violate any law to require at-will non-union employees to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting disclosure outside the company of information relating to customers, marketing procedures, costs, prices, business plans, computer and software systems, and “personnel information and documents?” If you answered “of course not!” you would be WRONG under…
An employee has requested a religious accommodation – do you need to grant it? Federal and state anti-discrimination laws require employers to provide reasonable accommodation for the religious practices and beliefs of employees, but relieves companies of the obligation if doing so will cause an undue hardship on the business.
Accommodations might include modified schedules,…
Many employers are aware that, before filing a discrimination lawsuit in federal court, an employee must file a timely charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The charge filing, which must occur within 180 days of the allegedly discriminatory act (or 300 days where there is a state agency with whom the charge…
When can an employer ask about an employee’s health? Multiple federal laws restrict when and what may be asked of applicants and employees. In a recent letter, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency responsible for the enforcement of federal antidiscrimination laws, offered some guidance on medical inquiries under the Americans with…
