Archive: December 2009

2. The Economy. This past year brought us the worst recession this country has seen in nearly 80 years. It should not surprise anyone that...

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4. The Swine Flu. Apart from the economy, no story dominated the headlines more in 2009 than H1N1. Because employees get sick, and need to...

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6. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Pro-Employee decisions. 2009 brought us two important pro-employee Supreme Court decisions. In Crawford v. Me...

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8. Associational Retaliation. In Thompson v. North Am. Stainless , the 6th Circuit reversed itself and held that retaliation is only actio...

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Today, I continue a tradition that I started last year – using the week between Christmas and New Year’s to count down the top 10 Labor ...

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President Obama has enacted legislation that both expands and extends the original federal COBRA subsidy created by the American Recovery an...

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Does your business have an electronic communications policy? Last week, Bowman v. Butler Township provided a gentle reminder of why your bu...

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The facts of Weimer v. Honda of Am. (6th Cir. 12/14/09) [pdf] are straight forward. James Weimer requested FMLA leave from Honda after inj...

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The big news of the week is the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear the appeal in Quon v. Arch Wireless . The issue in that case is whethe...

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MSNBC reports that multiple class actions have been filed against AT&T claiming that it misclassified as exempt all of its first-level ...

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Employees often believe that an employee’s exercise of a protected right acts as a shield to protect the employee from termination. And ofte...

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While doing some routine maintenance of its computer system, Butler Township discovered that members of its fire department – including part...

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Asking an employee taking leave under the FMLA to recertify the need for the leave is a powerful tool employers can use to curb FMLA abuse. ...

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Consider these facts: A city garbage truck driver is injured on the job. When he goes to the ER for treatment, a blood test reveals...

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Tiger Woods Tiger Drives Home a Lesson: Be Careful with Voice Mails – via Mindy Chapman’s Case in Point. And In...

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Interesting article by the New York Times ’s resident ethicist, Randy Cohen (from the 12/6/09 Sunday Magazine) on whether a company can ethi...

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This week, the Department of Labor is hosting a series of live chats through its website. The goal is to outline and discuss the DOL’s regul...

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Last week I discussed opposing counsel’s ability to interview your company’s current and former employees , even during active litigation. T...

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Last month, Doug Barron became the first golfer suspended by the PGA for failing a drug test. Shortly thereafter, he sued the PGA, claiming ...

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Workplace Technology Issues On whether emails sent by an employee to his or her attorney using an employer’s email system is prote...

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HR Review, a British HR website, asks the following question: “ Is closing office for  Christmas ‘indirect discrimination’? ” For example, ...

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Cleveland’s city ordinances already prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. As of this week, you can add “gender ide...

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Businesses often think that once litigation is filed, their employees are off limits to the other side, absent a deposition subpoena. After ...

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