New anonymous workplace app raises big workplace issue

Have you heard about Memo? It an iPhone app that allows individuals to post anonymous comments, both positive and negative, about their employers to a specific group page about the company. As you could imagine, it’s the negative posts that will get the lion’s share of attention.

Here’s what a typical company-bashing comment on Memo looks like.

According to Quartz.com, Memo has already “received two cease-and-desist letters, two companies have blocked emails from Memo hitting their servers, and three companies have written memos to employees about the app.”

I want to address the latter—companies that, via policy, fiat, or otherwise, try to stop their employees from using Memo.

As you should know, federal labor law gives employees the right to engage in protected, concerted activity—that is, discussions between or among employees about wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Employees’ discussions, for example, about an open-door policy, would be a textbook example of protected concerted activity.

Federal labor law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for engaging in protected concerted activity. Retaliation isn’t Memo’s biggest risk because its posts are (supposedly) anonymous. However, federal labor law also prohibits employers from maintaining or enforcing policies that could chill employees’ right to speak about terms and conditions of employment.

Thus, if you think you can legislate Memo (or other similar apps) out of your workplace, you might want to think again. The NLRB will likely hold a very different opinion about the rights of your employees to talk about your company, anonymously or otherwise.

Old laws meet new technology: sexual harassment via social media

Last week, the EEOC held a public meeting on workplace harassment. The most interesting testimony was provided by Jane Kow, of HR Law Consultants, who spoke about the impact of harassment on the modern workplace. One of the key areas she covered was the intersection of workplace harassment and social media:

The ease and speed of posting or responding to the proliferation of messages and images on social media—sometimes by employees at the 11th hour, right before bed, in 140 characters or less, and oftentimes without aforethought—has spawned employee complaints of harassment, defamation, violation of a right to privacy and a host of other claims. None of this was even imaginable in 1964 when Title VII was enacted (or in 1991 when it was amended). But employers must now interpret an EEOC guidance that was written and cas es that were decided by courts in the old millennia to determine how to apply these rules to regulate conduct in the new workplace of the present and future, transformed by these technological advances. 

Employers are now grappling with how to lawfully regulate employees’ text messages, blogs, and social media activity in the face of potential complaints from co-workers about harassing comments posted or images shared publicly.  

What does this mean for your business. The workplace's boundaries no longer begin a 9 and stop at 5. Technology connects employees to each other 24/7. This added connectivity creates opportunities for greater employee engagement and stronger workplace communities. It also creates opportunities for bad actors to do bad things, like harassment. It's important for employers to keep in mind that agencies and courts will apply the same rules to Facebook harassment as they would to face-to-face harassment. If they aren't treating any differently, neither should you.

A few from the archives for MLK Day

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Race relations have been particularly scrutinized over the past few months, with Ferguson and its fall out around the country. Thus, it is more important than ever to pause and think about Dr. King, and the lessons of inclusion and respect to be learned from his life and untimely death.

In this regard, here is what I’ve had to say to mark this day over the past few years.

• Something Different for MLK Day
• What Dr. King fought for … and what he didn’t
• MLK Day calls for reflection about how far race relations have come, and how far we have left to go
• Some words to ponder on MLK Day

WIRTW #351 (the “conciliation” edition)

We’re supposed to assume complete good faith on the government’s part and complete bad faith on the part of employers?

Chief Justice John Roberts asked this question of Assistant Solicitor General Nicole Saharsky during oral argument earlier this week in Mach Mining v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a case that will test the limits of how far the EEOC has to go to try to conciliate a charge of discrimination prior to filing an enforcement action in court.

The oral argument did not go so well for the EEOC. Irin Carmon at MSNBC, Jess Bravin at the Wall Street Journal, and Julie Goldscheid at SCOTUSblog have the details.

Here’s the rest of what I read this week:

Discrimination

• Are punitive damages recoverable in a Title VII discrimination case? — via Employment Law Bits
• Fitness for Duty Release Did Not Undermine Legitimate Reasons for Termination — via Laconic Law Blog
• Year-Starting Stumbles: The EEOC’s Aggressive Tactics Shot Down Twice In The First Week Of 2015 — via EEOC Year-End Countdown
• Employer Fails to Provide Leave of Absence to Probationary Employee, Pays the Price — via Jeff Nowak’s FMLA Insights
• 7th Circuit Finds Employer That Included Employee's EEOC Complaint in SEC Filings Enough to Show Retaliation — via Wisconsin Employment & Labor Law Blog
• Recent 404(b) “Other Acts” Cases In Title VII Employment Context — via David Neel’s Cleveland Employment Law Blog

Social Media & Workplace Technology

• Should You Be Performing Facebook Background Checks? — via ERC Insights Blog
• Facebook at Work tackles office communication with familiar tools — via Engadget Mobile
• Lawsuits, Discovery, and the Right to Privacy In the Context of Social Media — via Molly DiBianca’s Delaware Employment Law Blog
• BYOD and Employee Habits—Employer Concerns — via HR Daily Advisor

HR & Employee Relations

• Is Your Organization Ready for Another Northeast Ohio Winter? — via ERC Blog
• Workers may be temporary, but OSHA is forever: clarifying employer duties — via HR Hero Line
• My Employee Jokes About Strangling Difficult Customers — via Evil Skippy at Work
• HR 101: To Background Check or NOT to Background Check — via TLNT
• 8 New Year's Resolutions for HR — via Next Blog
• Is Policy The Enemy of Trust? — via Next Blog

Wage & Hour

• Since You Asked: A Modest Wage & Hour Law Proposal — via Dan Schwartz’s Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• President Obama to push for paid sick leave for American workers — via Eric Meyer’s Employer Handbook Blog
• Converting employees into contractors? Prepare for expensive, protracted litigation — via Business Management Daily
• Make sure smartphones mean smart business: Beware of wage-hour hazards — via Technology for HR
• Workers Are Bad at Filling Out Timesheets, and It Costs Billions a Day — via Harvard Business Review
• Can My Boss Dock My Pay For Mistakes? — via Donna Ballman at AOL Jobs

Labor Relations

• Can Companies Fire Workers Who Blab About How Much Money the Boss Makes? — via Matt Austin Labor Law
• U.S. Chamber Files Suit to Block NLRB’s New Election Rule Which Would Speed Up Elections — via Wyatt Employment Law Report
• New Year, New Rules, New Union-Avoidance Strategies — via Employment Law Watch
• Want to Be Happy? Join a Union — via The New York Times

Why retaliation claims should keep you up at night

In early 2009, Aker Plant Services terminated the employment of Tommy Sharp as part of workforce reduction. When Sharp asked his supervisor why the company chose him, as opposed to his less experienced, less senior co-workers, the supervisor replied that the company decided to keep younger employees who could stay with the company longer. Sharp then sued for age discrimination.

While Sharp’s age discrimination lawsuit was pending, a staffing agency attempted to place him for a temporary position at Aker. The company, however, immediately rejected Sharp’s candidacy,  notifying the staffing agency, via email, as follows:

Yes, we do know Tom. He does acceptable work as a designer, but he violated a DuPont mandate on the use of electronic recording devices on company property when last employed here. There are combustible materials in the plant that can potentially be ignited by the use of cell phones, recorders, cameras, etc… [sic] DuPont maintains a zero-tolerance approach to safety violations on its property so, unfortunately, we will not be able to consider Mr. Sharp for this role.

Sharp then brought a second suit, this time for retaliation. The district court dismissed the retaliation claim, concluding that the 15-month gap between Sharp’s initial notification of an intent to sue for age discrimination and the email to the staffing agency severed any potential causal connection between the two events.

The 6th Circuit, however, in Sharp v. Aker Plant Services Group (6th Cir. 1/13/15) [pdf], disagreed:

Considering the evidence in the light most favorable to Sharp, one could reasonably infer that Aker declined to rehire Sharp in retaliation for his then-pending discrimination action. Yes, it was fifteen months later…. Aker terminated Sharp before he filed his age-discrimination lawsuit, and therefore could not retaliate against him in any manner until he returned seeking temporary employment a year and a half later. Evidence showing that an employer had no opportunity to retaliate sooner supports a finding of temporal proximity.

Retaliation are the most dangerous claims that employers face. This employer likely felt safe refusing Aker’s placement because of the 15-month gap. That time gap, however, was tempered by the fact that the company no longer employed Aker, and its next interaction with him was the claimed act of retaliation. When an employee engages in protected activity, you must treat that employee with added care, as any act that could dissuade an employee from engaging in protected activity could give rise to a retaliation claim.

Beware the pregnancy accommodation claim

On Monday I published my list of the five biggest issues employers need to watch and manage in 2015. I listed “pregnancy leave rights” as number five. In reality, though, that issue could easily have been number one.

Consider that earlier this week, USA Today told the story of a North Carolina nursing assistant, who claims that she was forced to resign from her job after her employer refused to provide light duty to accommodate the medical complications of her pregnancy. According to the story, “The nursing home regularly provided ‘light duty’ to workers unable to lift, Cole says in the complaint. On light duty, nurse assistants can feed and clean residents and assist with oxygen tubing and nebulizers, she added.

This issue is not going away. Charges filed with the EEOC alleging pregnancy discrimination have increased by nearly 50% over the past 15 years. Moreover, women comprise nearly half of the workforce, and 75% of them will become pregnant at some point. Couple those stats with the fact that 40% households with children have mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family, and you can see why this issue is so critical to the American worker (and, consequently, the American employer).

Yet, this should be a non-issue for most employers. Just this past summer, the EEOC issued enforcement guidance that affirmed my long-held belief that employers may have to provide light duty for pregnant workers, and must provide the same accommodations to pregnant workers as to other workers with similarly disabling medical conditions. This rule will impose a light-duty obligation on most employers.

Ask yourself—

• Have I ever provided light duty to expedite the return-to-work of an employee with a work-comp claim?
• Have I ever provided light duty to an employee as an ADA reasonable accommodation?

If you answer “yes” to either of these questions (and most employers will), then you cannot deny the same light duty to a pregnant worker.

“Buyer’s regret” as an adverse employment action

Nearly a year ago, in Deleon v. City of Kalamazoo, the 6th Circuit decided that an employee could claim discrimination when he was “involuntarily” transferred into a position for which he had earlier voluntarily applied. 

At the time, I thought it was one of the worst decisions I had ever read.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court decline to review the Deleon case. Typically, these denials are unceremonious affairs, with nary a word other than “denied” pronounced. Justice Alito, however, apparently agreeing with my assessment of the 6th Circuit’s decision, took the rare occasion to draft a dissent to the denial (pdf here). This is what he wrote:

An old maxim warns: Be careful what you wish for; you might receive it. In the Sixth Circuit, however, employees need not be careful what they ask for because, if their request is granted and they encounter buyer’s regret, they can sue.

No termination is perfectly insured against a lawsuit. Some are more high risk than others (and those should be accompanied by an offer a severance package in exchange for a release of claims). Even the easiest decisions, however, carry some amount of risk. On any given day, any judge or jury could agree with the employee and decide against you. You job as an employer is to balance the risk of a lawsuit against the risk of keeping an employee employed and make a reasoned, informed decision about whether to retain, fire, or fire with a severance offer. And, please, don’t have buyer’s regret.

[Hat tip: Phil Miles’s Lawffice Space] 

Five for ’15: The legal issues that need to be on your radar

Personally, December is my favorite time of the year. I love the joy and togetherness of the holiday season. Professionally, however, I love January. After we’ve decked the halls and sung the last bars of Auld Lang Syne, companies get back to work, including the work of managing their most important asset—their employees.

Now that business is back in session, employers need to figure out the issues that will keep them up at night over the next 12 months. And that’s where I come in. My phone will start to ring as employers realize that they haven’t updated their handbook since the (first) Bush administration, of haven’t conducted harassment training since before Anita Hill made sexual harassment a household phrase.

What are the hot-button employment law issues that will keep your HR department busy over the next year? Let me offer five suggestions.

     1. Cyber-Security. No business is safe from the risk of a cyber-breach. The question of whether your business will suffer a breach is one of “when” and not “if.” Those looking to exploit your business and its information will attack your weakest point—your employees. A misplaced iPhone or laptop is a hacker’s key to your cyber-kingdom. Do your employees know what to do if their device is lost or stolen? Do they know to avoid unsecure Wi-Fi? Do they understand the risks associated with a loss of trade secrets or other confidential information? Are key employees locked down with confidentiality and non-competition agreements? Unless you can answer “yes” to each of these questions, you are taking a huge risk with your data. Be proactive in 2015 with your cyber-security by investing in prophylaxes to limit the risk of a breach. Creating a culture of security in your business will be the best money your company spends this year.

     2. Vaping. “Vape” was the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year for 2014. For the uninitiated, vaping is the practice of using e-cigarettes to deliver tobacco through a heating element to vaporize a liquid solution that includes a concentration of nicotine. Because these vaporizing devices do not contain tobacco, most state workplace smoking laws do not regulate them. Thus, it is up to individual employers to determine the pros and cons of e-cigarettes for their workplaces and to adopt a policy that reflects that position. Yet, laws that prohibit smoking in the workplace are a floor, not a ceiling. You are free to ban these devices in your workplace, and should consider doing so, as the associated health risks are undetermined.

     3. Same-sex relationships. Congress has been slow to amend Title VII to expressly prohibit LGBT discrimination. With the Republicans now controlling both houses of Congress, this trend is unlikely to change any time soon. It is offensive that, in 2015, it is still legal to discriminate against any class of people. Employers should not wait for Title VII expressly to include LGBT as a protected class. Instead, employers can, and should, do right by all of their employees by adopting progressive anti-discrimination policies that make it clear that they are employers are inclusion for all employees, even if Title VII, on its face, still permits discrimination against some.

     4. Overly active federal agencies. Social media. Wellness programs. Criminal background checks. These are just a few of the issues that the feds have on their radar. President Obama’s labor and employment legislative agenda may have been a big dud, but that has not stopped the EEOC, the NLRB, and the DOL from picking up the torch and running with it. Employers, be afraid.

     5. Pregnancy leave rights. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide Young v. United Parcel Service, which will address the issue of whether, and in what circumstances, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires an employer that provides work accommodations to non-pregnant employees with medical limitations to provide similar accommodations to pregnant employees who are similar in their (in)ability to work. UPS, which had previously refused to provide these accommodations to pregnant workers, has already amended its policies to make light duty available to pregnant employees with lifting or other restrictions to the same extent such work is available to employees with on-the-job injuries. This policy change is consistent with EEOC guidance published on this issue last summer. Stay tuned, as this issue promises to help shape the national debate over work/life balance and working parents.

Happy 2015! Cheers to a litigation free year.

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This post originally appeared in the January 2015 issue of Workforce.

WIRTW #350 (the “bad reputation” edition)

Allow me to take off my law blogger hat for a moment, and switch to my concert promoter hat.

If you love live music and find yourself looking for something to do on January 18 at 3 pm, or January 24 at 1 pm, School of Rock Strongsville will be presenting The Music of Joan Jett, featuring my very own Norah Hyman on guitar and vocals.

Both shows are at The Music Box, 1148 Main Ave., on the west bank of Cleveland’s rejuvenating Flats (a venue worth checking out if you haven’t yet been there). And, best of all, both shows are free.

Here’s what I read over the past few weeks:

Discrimination

• Is It Harassment To Post Nutritional Information On A Co-Worker’s Chair? — via Evil Skippy at Work
• The need for actual medical evidence in disability cases — via EmployerLINC
• “Your Asperger’s got in the way of your ability to interact with your boss, and we are tired of it.” — via Eric Meyer’s Employer Handbook Blog
• Family Friendly Policies: Is Europe Ahead Of The US? — via Employment Discrimination Report
• Do the ADA and FMLA Provide Protections to LGBT’s in the Workplace? — via The Emplawyerologist
• Obesity as a Disability: A Comparative Look — via Workplace Prof Blog
• The EEOC issues you’ll want to keep an eye on in 2015 — via HR Morning

Social Media & Workplace Technology

• HR Technology Trends In The Workplace In 2015 — via Karen Higginbottom at Forbes
• Watch Your Back: The Growing Threat of FCRA Background Check Class Actions — via Labor & Employment Law Perspectives
• Facebook Threats Constitute Legitimate Grounds for Termination — via Molly DiBianca at Next Blog
• Employee Terminated For Ill-Advised Facebook Post Gets Unemployment Benefits — via Technology & Marketing Law
• Report: Email still trumps social media, smartphones for workers — via Ragan.com
• 10 Social Media Privacy New Year's Resolutions — via Shear on Social Media Law

HR & Employee Relations

• Three Times When You Should Call an Employment Lawyer — via Dan Schwartz’s Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• Is your company covered by the Affordable Care Act yet? — via Mike Haberman’s Omega HR Solutions
• Knowing When to Fire Someone — via Harvard Business Review
• 15 for ’15: Employment and labor resolutions for the new year — via Robin Shea’s Employment & Labor Insider
• Don’t Be That Guy: Holding Out on Employment Background Checks — via employeescreenIQ Blog
• The Employee Zone Of Privacy — via Ohio HR Law

Wage & Hour

• Exotic dancers agree to $2.3 million wage and hour settlement — via Employer Advocate
• A Simple Proposal to Amend the FLSA to Benefit Everyone - Yes, Everyone — via Wage and Hour Defense Blog
• Attorney Client Privilege No Defense! – Turnover of Client Communications on Exempt Status Ordered — via Wage & Hour - Development & Highlights
• Wage and Hour Collective Actions May Lead To Improved Workplace Conditions — via Overtime Lawyer Blog
• Labor Department Going After More Wage and Hour Laws Violations — via TLNT
• How Do I Calculate FMLA Leave Where My Employee's Work Schedule Varies From Week to Week? — via Jeff Nowak’s FMLA Insights

Labor Relations

• Decertification Infographic — via Labor Relations Institute
• NLRB Sued Over Quickie Election Rule — via The National Law Review

Is “wife swapping” a protected class?

Although we are only 8 days into 2015, Lowering the Bar brings us what might be the lawsuit of the year:

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are “lifelong friends” and in the course of socializing, each of them fell in love with the other’s wife and the wives felt similarly.… The new living arrangements have been established; divorces are planned but have not yet been obtained. 

Although everyone involved is said to be perfectly happy with the situation, the plaintiffs allege that their employers were not, and “placed them both on unpaid administrative leave due to their co-habitation with a woman who is not their wife.” … Plaintiffs also allege they were told that if and when they returned to work, they would be demoted, and would have to “cease all contact” with the former co-habitors until such time as they obtained divorces.

The lawsuit—Coker v. Whittington [pdf]—is a constitutional civil rights action alleging that the discrimination is based on religion and violates the employees’ right to privacy and freedom of association.

Regardless of the legality of the termination (and I'm not convinced this employer did anything illegal), this lawsuit illustrates the pitfalls that face an employer that imposes its moral worldview on employees. An employer has no business firing employees because it disagrees with how they choose to live their private lives. Assuming that their private lives do not affect their job performance, it should not impact their employability. Next time you want to take a stand against an employee for how he or she chooses to live his or life outside of work, think again.

The employees who lunch don't need to be paid

Yesterday, the 6th upheld the dismissal of an FLSA collective action, in which a group of employees had alleged that their employer failed to pay them for time spent working during their lunch breaks.

Before we discuss how the employer won this case, I think it’s appropriate to have a quick refresher on meal and rest breaks under the FLSA.

Meal and rest periods are not required by any law. Neither federal law or Ohio law requires employers to provided employees with any breaks during the work day. Federal law, however, does provide for whether meal and rest breaks are counted as “hours worked.” This distinction is important. If time is counted as “hours worked,” it goes into the calculation of time worked during the work week for consideration of whether the employee has crossed the 40-hour threshold for overtime pay.

• Rest periods, which are considered breaks of 20 minutes or less, are counted as hours worked whether or not the break is paid. Rest breaks are customarily paid, and if they must be counted as work hours, they might as well be paid for. 
• A bona fide meal period, however, is not considered hours worked. To be a bona fide meal period the employee must be totally relieved of his or her work duties. According to the Department of Labor: “The employee is not relieved if he is required to perform any duties, whether active or inactive, while eating.”

What does it mean to be “totally relieved of one’s work duties?” The 6th Circuit falls in line with most of the federal courts in applying the “predominant benefit” test to determine whether an employee’s meal period is compensable. Under this test, the employee bears the burden to prove that the normally non-compensable meal period should be compensable because it is spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit. The key inquiry is whether the employee engaged in the performance of any substantial duties during the lunch break.

With this background in mind, let’s look at yesterday’s decision in Jones-Turner, et al. v. Yellow Enterprise Sys. [pdf].

The class involved a group of EMTs and dispatchers who claimed that they were not paid for time spent “working” during their lunch breaks. Yellow automatically designated a 30-minute slot during each 8.5-hour shift as an unpaid lunch break. EMTs in the field were not allotted a specific time period for lunch but were instructed to use down time between ambulance runs to eat a meal, and had to radio dispatch to request permission to take a lunch break at the chosen time. If an employee was unable to take a lunch break due to call volume, Yellow required the employee to submit a missed lunch slip, which the employer would review for accuracy.

The court affirmed the dismissal of the wage-and-hour claim:

Yellow required its employees to radio the dispatcher to request a lunch break. EMTs had to eat within one mile of an assigned stand-by location. If the crews were “out of unit,” they had to maintain radio contact and were subject to any available run. They were expected to answer the radio after the first call. However, there was no policy that employees remain in the truck for lunch, and plaintiffs introduced no evidence that they were ever told they had to eat in the truck. Nor do the plaintiffs cite any evidence that while on a lunch break they were required to perform duties beyond responding to a call, or that once approved for a lunch break they were frequently interrupted by radio contact.... Yellow’s policies do not indicate that the plaintiffs were engaged in substantial duties during their lunch break.

This case illustrates the importance of having a policy and process in place to know when your employees are, and are not, working. Employees need to be paid for all time spent “working.” If you have a process in place, however, by which employees must notify you of when they are working outside the norm (whether it be a lunch break, or pre- or post-shift), then you will be able to verify the claim, and pay when you can confirm that work has been performed outside the normal shift boundaries. Absent that documentation, however, you are left in a the unenviable position of having to prove a negative (the employee was not working when he says he was), which is not the position you want to find yourself in defending one of these cases.

More on the importance of being accommodating

Yesterday, I wrote about the need for employers to be more accommodating for their employees’ protected needs. Today, I bring you two real-world illustrations.

• Yesterday, the EEOC announced that it had filed suit on behalf of an employee who was denied the opportunity to return to work following some time off for a cardiac condition.
• Late last year, the EEOC reached an $85,000 settlement with an employer who fired an employee attempting to return to work following time off for cancer chemotherapy treatments.

In both instances, the EEOC made the same point—the ADA imposes on employers an absolute duty to determine whether or not they can accommodate an employee’s disability. Absent that consideration, the law has been violated. Moreover, after engaging in that interactive process, the employer can only deny the request: 1) if it poses an undue hardship, or 2) if the employee cannot perform the essential functions of the job with or without the accommodation. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the receiving end of an EEOC press release, which is not the position you want to be in.

A New Year’s accommodation story

We spent part of our winter vacation on a quick family trip to Washington D.C.  The Old 97’s, my 8-year-old daughter’s favorite band, was playing two nights, and we decided to pack up the car and make the drive to our nation’s capital to catch the less raucous New Year’s Eve Eve show (and to see some of the of the sights).

My younger child, Donovan, who’s 6, has Celiac Disease. Traveling with someone who has a food allergy is tricky enough. When that same person is your typical 6-year-old picky eater, it’s darn near impossible.

Before we left home, I called the concert venue, where we planned to eat dinner during the opening act, to ask about gluten-free options for kids. They assured me that the wait staff and chefs were well versed in gluten-free preparations. For example, they could serve a bun-less cheeseburger (not his favorite, but he’d manage). When they told me that they had a dedicated fryer for french fries, I knew we’d be fine. He loves fries, but most restaurants can’t accommodate him because of the risk of cross contamination from shared fryers.

When we sat down for dinner, however, the server told us that the downstairs concert hall has a different, more limited menu then the upstairs restaurant, and they they don’t serve a kids menu or fries downstairs. Uh oh! I explained my son’s dietary issues, and that I had called ahead. She explained that they were really crowded and could not make any promises, but that she would see what she could do. No more than 5 minutes later she returned with a thumbs up, letting us know they a bun-less kids cheeseburger with gluten-free french fries would be on their way. Crisis averted.

Employers, there is a lesson to be learned from how the Hamilton handled our issue. It would have been easy for it to stick to its, “We’re too busy” story, leaving Donovan with nothing to eat. Yet, given how simple it was for them to take an extra minute and go upstairs for the burger and fries, I would have been offended had they said no.

Don’t  take the easy way out with your employees when they ask for accommodations for a disability, religion, or other protected reason. Even if you are legally right (and, the odds are good that you won’t be), you will leave the employee feeling offended and upset. Those feelings breed discontent, which, in turn, breed lawsuits. 

WIRTW #349 (the “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, y’all” edition)

With the end of the year drawing nigh, today’s post will be my last of 2014 (barring any hot-off-the-presses breaking news). I wish all of my readers a joyous holiday season (whatever your December celebration of choice), and a happy New Year. I’ll see everyone back in 2015.

Here’s what I read this week:

Discrimination

• Santa Sued for Disability Discrimination Due to Reindeer Harassment — via Bolek Besser Glesius, LLC
• Ebola discrimination in your workplace, what the Department of Justice wants you to know. — via Eric Meyer’s The Employer Handbook Blog
• Do You Hear What I Hear? Accent Discrimination in the Workplace. — via Fitzpatrick on Employment Law
• The GOP Effect on the EEOC — via HRE Online
• Is Retaliation The New Discrimination?? — via Employment Law Lookout
• Anti-discrimination training: How to harm when you’re trying to help — via HR Cafe
• Six Geese a Laying … And How Not to Get Your Goose Cooked With a Pregnancy Discrimination Claim — via All in a Day’s Work
• Is alcoholism considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? — via Employment Law Bits

Social Media & Workplace Technology

• Employee Personal Information – The Gift You Don’t Want to Give this Christmas — via EntertainHR
• What We Can Learn from the Biggest Corporate Hacks — via Lifehacker
• Jets Owner “Accidentally” Favorites Tweet Calling For GM's Firing — via Deadspin
• Time for Employers to Consider Social Media Background Checks? — via employeescreenIQ Blog

HR & Employee Relations

• The Top Five Signs you Need an HR Person — via Blogging4Jobs
• Employment law advice you should never follow — via Robin Shea’s Employment & Labor Insider
• How Employers Do Employment Background Checks — via Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas
• FCRA Class Action Lawsuits: What Employers Need to Know — via Trepanier MacGillis Battina
• Millennials Seek Flexibility at Work — via Minnesota Labor & Employment Law Blog
• Guns In The Workplace Versus Employer’s Property Rights — via Ohio HR Law
• Is Full-Time Telecommuting a Good or Bad Thing? — via Technologist

Wage & Hour

• PA Supreme Court Affirms Nine-Figure Judgment Against Wal-Mart — via Phil Miles’s Lawffice Space
• Wage and Hour Considerations During The Holiday Season — via Overtime Lawyer Blog
• Yes, Employers Can Still Have Unpaid Interns (Under the Right Circumstances) — via Wage & Hour Insights
• FMLA Leave for Headache Effectively Converts Full-Time Position into Part-Time Position; Employers' Shrieks Heard Across the Country — via Jeff Nowak’s FMLA Insights

Labor Relations

• NLRB and labor law roundup — via Walter Olson’s Overlawyered
• NLRB Delivers Freshly Wrapped Gift to Trumka — via Labor Pains
• NLRB helps unions by speeding elections; “ambush elections” rule to be fought by business groups — via The Business Journals
• NLRB: Employers Must Include Employees’ Phone Numbers, Email Addresses in Voter Lists — via Joe’s HR and Benefits Blog
• Alt-Labor — via Labor Relations Institute
• National Labor Relations Board Narrows Arbitral Deferral Standards ​— via Labor Relations Today

The 12 Days of Employment Law Christmas (2014)

For the past two Noels, I published “The 12 Days of Employment Law Christmas.” As this has become a year-end tradition at the blog, I’m sharing it again (with updated links). If you’re feeling brave, post a video of yourself singing along.

Have a great end to your 2014, and happy holidays, regardless of your holiday of choice.

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(Some musical accompaniment)

On the first day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
a lawsuit for my company.

On the second day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the third day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
7 sex harassers,
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me 
8 discriminating managers,
7 sex harassers,
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
9 ladies lactating,
8 discriminating managers,
7 sex harassers,
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
10 labor campaigns,
9 ladies lactating,
8 discriminating managers,
7 sex harassers,
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
11 personnel manuals,
10 labor campaigns,
9 ladies lactating,
8 discriminating managers,
7 sex harassers,
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my employment lawyer gave to me
12 disabled workers,
11 personnel manuals,
10 labor campaigns,
9 ladies lactating,
8 discriminating managers,
7 sex harassers,
6 guys-a-lying,
5 Facebook firings,
4 collective actions,
3 FMLA notices,
2 trade secrets,
and a lawsuit for my company.

Merry Christmas!

Feds impose LGBT affirmative action on federal contractors

If you are a federal contractor of subcontractor, in four months you will have new affirmative action obligations relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.

According to a Final Rule issued last week by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, beginning  April 5, 2015, federal contractors and subcontractors must include federal contractors and subcontractors must include sexual orientation and gender identity in their affirmative action plans.

According to the Rule, which implements Executive Order 13762, federal contractors and subcontractors must:

• Take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated, without regard to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited bases of discrimination in the Equal Opportunity Clause in all federal contracts, subcontracts, and purchase orders.
• Update all solicitations or advertisements for employment to state that the contractor considers all applicants for employment without regard to any of the protected bases, which now must include sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Post updated notices in the workplace for applicants and employees, which state that sexual orientation and gender identity are protected traits in employment.

Notably, and different than affirmative action for other protected traits, the Rule does not require contractors to set placement goals on the bases of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it require contractors to collect and analyze any data on these bases (although the OFCCP will consider statistical and non-statistical data in determining whether contractors have met their nondiscrimination obligations).

While Congress continues to drag it feet  on ENDA, the Obama Administration continues to do what it can to extend equal employment opportunity for all.

Adverse actions come in all shapes and sizes

Consider these facts, taken from Kudla v. Olympic Steel (Ohio Ct. App. 11/20/14). Employee, age 65, is fired from his job as part of a corporate reorganization. Employer has a change of heart, however, and rescinds the termination after Employee lawyers up and alleges age discrimination. He claimed, however, that his employment following his rehire was substantively different, including a forced move out of his prior office into a cubicle, the exclusion from meetings, and the placement on surveillance.

Based on these facts, the court of appeals had little problem deciding that the trial court should have allowed Kudla to present his claim to a jury:

He contends that he was essentially demoted and cites in support of his contention, for example, that many of his responsibilities, except clerical ones, were reassigned to his younger coworkers, and that he was moved out of his office into a cubicle.

Olympic Steel, on the other hand, denies Kudla's demotion claim and cites that his pay was not reduced, his job title did not change, and he still performed important work for the company. The company also contends that putting Kudla in a cubicle was a temporary situation necessitated by the reorganization of the human resources department; as part of the reorganization, Kudla no longer needed to discuss personal, confidential information with employees and managers and, thus, he did not need an office….

[W]e find that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to whether Kudla did suffer an adverse employment action.

It is not impossible to terminate, or otherwise take an adverse action against, an employee on the heels of protected activity. Moreover, something as innocuous as moving an employee out of his office could be deemed sufficiently “adverse” to support a retaliation claim.

Bad employees cannot bulletproof themselves merely by complaining about discrimination. However, you must have a rock-solid legitimate non-retaliatory and non-pretextual reason for your action to survive the lawsuit that is likely to follow.

The NLRB was a busy beaver last week

Late last week, the NLRB made huge news. In Purple Communications, the NLRB ruled that employees have a right to use their employers’ email systems during non-working time to communicate about union issues. For more on this case, I suggest checking out the write-ups by my friends Dan Schwartz and Seth Borden, both of whom did an excellent job summarizing the decision and its import.

In response to Purple Communications, employers should be reviewing, and, if necessary, revising, their email and electronic-communications policies to ensure that they do not prohibit employees from engaging in conversations about union issues during non-working time.

To cap its week, the Board next issued its rules for ambush elections in representation proceedings.

While the email ruling is the sexier of the two issues, the election rules will likely have the more significant impact on your business. In fact, I agree with Eric Meyer that Purple Communications is not that big of deal. Yes, it is troubling that the NLRB is ignoring the property rights employers have in their own email systems. But, in reality, I wonder if employees are using their company’s email systems for this purpose. There are so many other modes of communications available to employees. They can text each other. They can message on Facebook. The fact is that unions are increasingly more technologically sophisticated in their organizing tactics, and I wonder how many are relying on corporate email systems for communication. Moreover, if employees are using your email systems for organizing, then you have the right and the ability to read those emails. If you can have access to unions’ organizing secret sauce, is this access all that bad for employers.

In response to the election rules, employers need to adopt what I call the “TEAM” response to union organizing:

• Train supervisors
• Educate employees
• Accessibility
• Modernize policies

You can read more about this philosophy of union avoidance here. The point is that once a union files its petition seeking a representation election, you will have scant time to respond. You will not have time to launch a full-blown counter-campaign. If your supervisors do not know how to spot potential organizing before it becomes an issues, and if you don’t have a game plan in place long before its needed, you will have a difficult, if not impossible, time engaging in a meaningful response to the union. If you can’t effectively communicate your message to your employees, you will have a difficult time convincing those employees to vote against the union.

WIRTW #348 (the “blackheart” edition)

Twice a year, my kids’ school invites any students in grades K – 5 who take private music lessons to perform in a recital for the entire Lower School. On Thursday, 16 students displayed their musical talents. We heard Christmas carols, standards, and classical pieces. And then Norah took the stage with Joan Jett’s Crimson and Clover:

If you're in Cleveland, you can see Norah perform this (and other Joan Jett songs) with her full band on Sunday, January 18 and Saturday, January 24, at the Music Box Supper Club.

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Have you voted yet for this year’s ABA Blawg 100? You have until Dec. 19 to cast your vote here.

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Here’s what I read this week:

Discrimination

• The “Association” Game: How a Spouse’s Cancer May be Covered by the ADA — via Dan Schwartz’s Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• Role reversal! EEOC must disclose its own background check policy to the employer it's suing — via Eric Meyer’s The Employer Handbook Blog
• ENDA Getting a Turbocharge — via Wisconsin Employment & Labor Law Blog
• What Not to Do If an Employee Requests an Accommodation — via Blogging4Jobs
• White People and Political Correctness — via Fistful of Talent
• Is It Religious Discrimination To Have A Christmas Tree At Work? — via Evil Skippy at Work
• The Origins of Sexual Harassment — via Workplace Prof Blog
• Is a dumb joke sexual harassment? — via Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas
• Expand pregnancy-bias law to include accommodation rights? — via Walter Olson’s Overlawyered
• Does Title VII Prohibit Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity Discrmination? Definitely, Maybe. — via The Emplawyerologist

Social Media & Workplace Technology

• Instagram is now bigger than Twitter — via The Verge
• Lawyers Left to their Own Devices — via Clio

HR & Employee Relations

• Man has 8 minutes to convince prostitutes to quit in new reality show — via Entertainment Weekly’s Ausiello Files
• FTC and EEOC Publish Background Check Guide for Job Applicants — via EmployeeScreenIQ Blog
• Why would I want to offer a severance benefit to a terminated employee? — via Employment Law Bits
• 10 oddest Christmas and holiday gifts given by co-workers, says Harris Poll — via Cleveland.com
• Can you keep your HR lady from moonlighting as an exotic dancer? — via Mike Haberman’s Omega HR Solutions

Wage & Hour

• The Changing Face of Paid-Time-Off ERC Insights Blog
• Buccaneers Will Stop Using Unpaid Homeless People To Sell Beer — via Deadspin
• States With Pro-Employee Laws: No Use-It-Or-Lose-It Vacation — via Donna Ballman’s Screw You Guys, I’m Going Home
• When an Employee Falls Off a Ladder at Work, is His Absence Covered by FMLA? An Employer's Misstep Discussed… — via Jeff Nowak’s FMLA Insights
• Unanimous Supreme Court Rules Employer Need Not Pay for Worker Security Screenings: Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk— via Wage & Hour Insights

Labor Relations

• NLRB Again Attempts to Invalidate Mandatory Arbitration Clauses for Employment Claims — via Employment Matters Blog
• Senate Confirms New Member of the National Labor Relations Board — via TLNT
• NLRB: Mercedes Violated Labor Law by Restricting Distribution of Union Material — via Joe’s HR and Benefits Blog
• Board ALJ Hits Walmart With ULPs — via Labor Relations Today

Even Santa needs an employee handbook

The Christmas season is upon us, which means that the elves are hard at work deep inside the confines of the North Pole’s buildings preparing gifts to load onto Santa’s sleight for his Yuletide trip around the globe. Pop culture, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Elf, portrays Santa’s workshop as a happy, jolly place, where the elves gleefully craft toys all hours of the day and night, with not even a whisper of discontent.

Someone (or, more accurately, some elf), has squealed.

The North Pole Employee Handbook: A Guide to Policies, Rules, Regulations and Daily Operations for the Worker at North Pole Industries was allegedly found in “the vast confines of a Newark warehouse used to store elf clothing for Christmas displays.” It appears that all is not candy and carols at the North Pole.

For example:

• Employees are called “cogs.”
• Humans are not discriminated against in employment, as long as they are nimble, quick, and speak in high-pitched voices.
• Cogs receive unpaid holidays for most of January, all of February – September, and half of October. With no other industry to speak of in the North Pole, however, other income-earning opportunities must be scarce.
• Human employees must wear fake elf ears “as a gesture of solidarity with” their “fellow employees.”
• Cogs must sign a non-competition agreement as a condition of employment. (I guess that job at Mattel is going to have to wait.)
• Discipline can include weeks of work without pay.
• Cogs receive the generous allotment of one five minute break and one 11.5 minute lunch break for every 11 hours worked.

Other topics covered include the dental plan (administered by Herbie), how to participate in reindeer games, and what the 12 days of Christmas mean to you. Needless to say, Santa does not appear to be one to be trifled with. Then again, if he knows when all of the world’s kids have been naughty or nice, it stands to reason that he keeps a pretty tight grip on his employees. And, if you think Santa is a pain, the handbook makes it clear that the HR Director, Mrs. Claus, goes without physical attention from Santa during peak production times and can get a tad prickly as a result.

If you’re looking for a good holiday gift for that special HR person in your life, I strongly recommend The North Pole Employee Handbook.

Also, don’t forget after January 1 to take a look at your own employee handbook, to determine if any policies need to be updated or added.