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June 25, 2022
Walgreens murder exposes weakness of managers failing to eradicate harassment
One of the most important responsibilities of a manager is to protect employees from harm, including harassment. In a horrific case from Colorado, 17-year-old Walgreens employee Riley Whitelaw is dead and her 28-year-old co-worker Joshua Johnson has been charged with first-degree murder after Whitelaw reportedly rejected the accused’s advances for over a year, and shared […]
June 18, 2022
Sexual harassment suit can proceed in case where firefighters viewed a nude video of colleague
A female Texas firefighter, who claimed that her male colleagues viewed a nude video of her that was stolen from her personal computer, can proceed with her claim of sexual harassment against her former employer, according to a recent opinion by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Jane Doe (name withheld to protect her privacy) […]
June 11, 2022
Return to the office and COVID-19
Employees working for the Commonwealth of Virginia must return to the office July 5, unless they receive permission to telework one day a week from the agency head. For additional telework days, the employees must seek approval beyond the agency head within Governor Youngkin’s administration. The move by organizations to require employees to return to […]
June 4, 2022
Religious accommodations not required if the accommodation impacts other employees
Former U.S. Postal employee Gerald Groff sued his employer, claiming it failed to provide him a reasonable accommodation for his religious beliefs. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs conflict with a work rule unless doing so would create an undue hardship. […]
May 28, 2022
Using artificial intelligence during the hiring process can violate the Americans with Disabilities Act
The use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has been at the center of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recent guidance on “The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Use of Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence to Assess Job Applicants and Employees.” The guidance can help employers understand the ADA requirements when using AI in […]
May 21, 2022
Employment discrimination and artificial intelligence, employers beware
Employers continue to find new ways to automate business practices, including using software programs that provide for artificial intelligence (AI) in a variety of employment practices, including recruitment. These new technologies, while promising in many respects, have garnered the attention of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which last year launched the Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic […]
May 14, 2022
Pay your interns – regardless of whether the law requires it
Many high school and college students are about to begin their summer internships. Whether the employer is required to compensate them is determined by multiple factors and depends on federal and state law. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, any “for-profit” employer must pay employees for their work. The current minimum wage in Virginia is […]
May 7, 2022
With Supreme Court leak, employers have renewed concern over protecting their confidential information
When Politico reported that it received a copy of a confidential draft of a purported landmark opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, employers took note. If someone from an institution as sacred as the Supreme Court could suffer such a monumental breach of confidentiality, what can regular employers do to protect their information? For many […]
April 30, 2022
If employers want to avoid a union – listen to employees
With a clear shift to workers taking back their voices following COVID-19, unionizing appears to be on the rise and on the forefront. Not just in New York where, for example, Amazon workers just voted to form a union, but also in Richmond, where last month five area Starbucks voted to unionize. Prior to initiating […]
April 23, 2022
Employee subjected to unwanted birthday party wins $450,000 for disability discrimination & retaliation
A Kentucky jury awarded a former employee $450,000 following a lawsuit alleging disability discrimination and retaliation which he says began when company employees held an unwanted birthday party for him. Former employee Kevin Berling sued his employer Gravity Diagnostics in Kentucky state court claiming that nine months after he started at the company he informed […]