D.C. Office of Human Rights publishes best practices guide for employers on transgender rights

The District of Columbia Office of Human Rights, in connection with the National LGBTQ Task Force, recently published a 19-page best practices guide for employers on transgender issues in the workplace. The document, entitled, Valuing Transgender Applicants & Employees: A Best Practices Guide for Employers [pdf], when taken together with earlier guidance from the EEOC on transgender bathroom access and broader guidance from the EEOC on LGBT discrimination continues to signal that issue is one that you can no longer ignore.

Are ban-the-box laws actually causing more racial discrimination?

I read with great interest an article on vox.com, entitled, “Ban the box” might just replace one kind of discrimination with another. The article discusses two recent studies, one by The Brookings Institution and the other by the University of Chicago, both of which concluded that ban-the-box laws have the unintended consequence of causing more discrimination against minorities, not less:

What you need to know about EEOC’s proposed national-origin-discrimination guidance

I had a post prepared in my brain about the EEOC’s recently published proposed Enforcement Guidance on National Origin Discrimination. And then Robin Shea beat me to the punch. So, instead of recreating the wheel, I am instead directing you to her always excellent Employment & Labor Insider blog, where she shares 25 quick takes (no kidding!) on the EEOC’s proposed guidance.

A dramatic retelling of an NLRB protected concerted activity decision

Last week, the NLRB decided Dalton Schools, Inc. [pdf], in which the Board unanimously determined that a private school unlawfully terminated one of its teachers for engaging in certain protected concerted activity—complaints about how the school handled its annual musical production.

In the spirit of the decision, I present a dramatic retelling of the case, in five acts.

WIRTW #415 (the “CB + TMR = 😊”) edition

That time you walked into Third Man Records before the Courtney Barnett show and ran into Courtney Barnett.

A photo posted by Jon Hyman (@jonhyman) on May 31, 2016 at 3:30pm PDT

My daughter leads a charmed life. As one friend put it, “She’s going to think she gets to meet the band at every show she goes to. When does Sir Paul come to town?”

On a serious note, it was truly special to Norah that CB took the time to speak to her on Tuesday. I hold my breath every time she meets one of her idols. Each meeting is an opportunity for her to learn (at the tender age of 10) about grace and humility in the face of fame (or otherwise), and CB certainly did not disappoint. Norah absolutely loved the concert, but meeting Courtney Barnett was the highlight of her trip (edging out spending time with dear ol’ dad).

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

You have the right to replace striking workers, right?

Labor unions and the employees they represent have the right to strike. To combat the economic pressure of that labor stoppage, employers have long held the right to permanently replace those striking employees with replacement workers. Or, at least employers had that right.

Earlier this week, in American Baptist Homes of the West [pdf], the NLRB severely restricted the rights of employers to hire permanent replacements by holding that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act if if permanently replaces striking employees for the purpose “to punish the strikers and the Union and to avoid future strikes.”

7th Circuit surprises by siding with NLRB on arbitration agreements

It’s been two and a half years since the 5th Circuit, in D.R. Horton, rebuked the NLRB’s prohibition on mandatory arbitration clauses. Since, however, the NLRB has been undeterred, finding, in case after case, that employers’ mandatory arbitration agreements (with and without class-action waivers) violate employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activity under section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

Thus, when I heard that the traditionally business friendly 7th Circuit would be taking up the same issue, I figured the NLRB would go 0 – 2 in the federal courts of appeals on this issue. Boy was my prognostication radar off.