On February 4, 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released litigation data for its fiscal year 2014, which ran from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2014.  The EEOC enforces Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Equal Pay Act, and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act. Overall,...Read More

Last December, the National Labor Relations Board (“the Board” or “NLRB”) issued a controversial new rule changing drastically how union elections will be conducted. The rule dramatically shortens the time between the filing of a certification petition and the secret ballot election.  Although the rule does not mandate that an election occur within a certain period...Read More

Don’t think you need to periodically review your FMLA policies?  Think it’s just too expensive and time-consuming to properly train those who administer the FMLA at your company?  If you do, you may want to consider the case of Terry Tilley v. Kalamazoo County Road Commission. Terry had worked for the Road Commission in Kalamazoo,...Read More

Supporters argue low wage workers and minorities will benefit.  Opponents believe the law adds more unnecessary bureaucracy for employers.  Regardless of which position you agree with, on January 4, 2015, Illinois became the first state in the nation to require employers to automatically enroll workers in a retirement account, a measure which affects an estimated...Read More

Recently, a federal appellate court issued a decision which should make employers even more cautious in administering their FMLA policies. Suzan requested FMLA leave to care for her married, adult daughter, who was undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. Suzan’s employer, Harbor Crest, granted her request for FMLA leave. While on FMLA leave, in the course of...Read More

On June 19, 2014, the Supreme Court of Kentucky decided Creech v. Brown, concluding more than five years of litigation over the enforceability of an employer’s non-compete agreement.  The employer lost, and Kentucky employers wishing to avoid the same fate should consider this decision carefully. Brown worked for Creech for 18 years. Creech is in the...Read More

The NLRB recently announced that it will not seek Supreme Court review of two U.S. Court of Appeals decisions invalidating the NLRB’s Notice Posting Rule. The Notice Posting Rule would have required most private sector employers to post a notice in a prominent location explaining to workers their rights to join a union and bargain collectively....Read More

By now, you undoubtedly have heard about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Windsor, declaring unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), which defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. But you may not have considered the effects of this decision on employers’ obligations to provide leave under...Read More

In May, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a new law allowing individuals arrested or convicted of certain crimes, after a certain number of years from the conviction, to petition the court and request that the record of their conviction be expunged from the court’s files and from the files of the Department of Corrections and...Read More

You may have missed it, but the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, turned 20 years old last month. Although the purpose of the FMLA may be a noble one — providing employees unpaid leave from work for treatment of their own serious health condition, or to care for and comfort family members who...Read More