For the past 12 years, it has been the law in the 6th Circuit that an employer cannot discriminate against a female employee because she had an abortion (see Turic v. Hollan Hospitality). This week the 3rd Circuit joined suit, and held that the term "related medical condition" in the Pregnancy Discrimination Act includes an abortion. The case is Doe v. C.A.R.S. Protection, and you can read about it on the LawMemo Employment Law Blog and the Nolo Employment Law Blog.
WorkplaceHorizons posts this week on two separate recent legislative issues: the little known Child Labor Provisions of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act, and a potential compromise between employers and disability rights advocates on the ADA Restoration Act. For my prior thoughts on the ADA Restoration Act, see ADA Restoration Act unnecessarily seeks to broaden the definition of "disability". While these changes would be a step in the right direction, it would be a big mistake to amend the ADA to affirmatively state that mitigating measures should not be considered when determining whether an impairment materially restricts an individual's major life activity.
The Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog has some information on a topic that often plagues HR professionals, whether an employer is required to continue an employee's accrual of vacation benefits while out on FMLA or military leave.
The Delaware Employment Law Blog reports on mixed results for employers from the Families & Work Institute's recent study of flexible work benefits among U.S. companies.
We'll finish this week's review with a trio of articles about e-discovery. HR Tech News reports that employment lawsuits cause the most e-discovery headaches, while Rush on Business tells us why document retention policies are so important for businesses to have in light of that news. Meanwhile, ediscoveryinfo gives us 5 key misconceptions that businesses have about electronically stored information and their e-discovery obligations.