ADEA
A USERRA Leave Primer for Employers
Employers rely on consistent employee attendance to keep their businesses running properly. The best-laid plans can be disrupted by employee absences leaving a gap in satisfying their customers’ needs. As a result, employers rely on reasonable and enforceable attendance policies to support their operations. Those attendance policies must make room for appropriate employee time off…
Read MoreWhat Manufacturers Should Know About the ADA’s Exception for ‘Transitory and Minor’ Impairments
Under the Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), employers have a viable defense to an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) “regarded as” claim if the impairment in question was “transitory and minor,” although transitory and minor impairments are ill-defined. Manufacturing and Disability The ADA defines “disability” in three ways: (1) a physical or mental…
Read MoreNumerous Employment Law Developments to Be Aware Of
As the first half of the year draws to a close, we take this opportunity to provide a summary of recent developments. If you have any questions about these or other developments, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our organization for advice. REMINDER: EXPANDED PROTECTIONS FOR PREGNANT AND NURSING EMPLOYEES On June 27,…
Read MoreWhy Do You Need a Handbook Disclaimer and What Should Be In It Anyway?
If you’re like most employers right now, you’re in the process of reviewing your Employee Handbook to see if it needs to be updated. A recent Alabama state court decision offers valuable lessons to all employers with employee handbooks (not just those in Alabama) on the importance of a properly drafted handbook disclaimer. Now, in…
Read MoreAppellate Court Addresses How Much Information Employee Must Submit to Support an Accommodation Request
One of the many difficult issues employers face under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is determining what information a disabled employee must provide to an employer to trigger the employer’s duty to accommodate a disability. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressed that question for the first time in Owens v.…
Read MoreWhen Is the Accommodation Duty Triggered?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressed this question under the Rehabilitation Act (which applies to federal agencies, contractors and subcontractors, but applies the same standards of analysis as the Americans with Disabilities Act), stating, “The type and extent of information that an employee must provide will depend, of course, on the…
Read MoreNew Frontier in COVID-19 Vaccine Litigation
Despite President Biden’s recent declaration that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, litigation concerning employer vaccine mandates continues as employers face hurdles to ensure workplace safety and compliance with government mandates. Here we take a closer look at issues companies are facing more than two years into the pandemic, and how you may help your business…
Read MoreUnlimited Time Off Presents Hidden Challenges for Employers
We have increasingly been fielding inquiries from organizations that are looking to implement some version of unlimited time off for their employees. They saw that employees continued to be productive while working remotely during the pandemic, and they want to give them the flexibility to take time off as/when needed – provided the work still…
Read MoreIntersection of ADA, COVID-19 Requires Creative Reopening Policies, EEOC Official Says
The EEOC has received hundreds of charges involving both COVID-19 vaccination and the ADA, according to Evangeline Hawthorne, the agency’s Tampa field office director. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received thousands of charges related to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. As of December 2021, more than 2,700 charges were related to COVID-19 vaccines,…
Read MoreEmployers Weigh Whether to Rescind Vaccination Policies
Now that the vaccine-or-testing emergency temporary standard (ETS) from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been withdrawn, employers that have instituted mandatory vaccination or vaccine-or-testing policies are deciding whether to stay the course or backtrack. The U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing rule, an ETS that applied to employers with at least 100…
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