Federal court denies injunction against new OSHA retaliation rules

Stan Musial, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew, Honus Wagner, Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio. Six of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. And all ended the careers with batting averages under .333. If you’re a baseball player, one out of three places you among the all-time greats. If you’re the Department of Labor, however, it’s not so good.

The DOL has already taken two big losses this month (first its Persuader Rule, and then its Overtime Rule), so you’ll forgive it if it’s not overly jubilant about closing November with a much needed win. Yet, a win is a win, and at this point the DOL will take what it can get from federal judges in Texas.

“Perceived” national origin discrimination may not be illegal, but…

Lost in the maelstrom of the last week’s FLSA overtime rule injunction was the news that the EEOC issued updated enforcement guidance on national origin discrimination.

The guidance, which replaces the EEOC’s older 2002 guidance and covers topic such as citizenship, language issues and English-only policies, and harassment, is recommended reading for all employers, as are the EEOC’s companion Q&A and small business fact sheet.

Let me point out, however, one area of contention—the issue of “perceived” national origin discrimination.

As sure as today is Cyber Monday, your employees are shopping from work

Today is Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season. In fact, it is estimated that today will be the biggest online shopping day ever, with over $3.36 billion in sales.

And, guess what? Given that most of those doing the shopping will be spending the majority of their prime shopping hours at work, from where do you think they will be making most of their Cyber Monday purchases.

Consider these statistics, pulled from CareerBuilder’s 2016 Cyber Monday Survey:

With the new overtime rules DOA, what now for employers?

Yesterday I promised myself a blogging vacation until after the Thanksgiving holiday. And then Judge Amos L. Mazzant III dropped the biggest employment law story of the year by enjoining the DOL’s new overtime rules.

My 5th grade daughter just completed two long-term school projects—a comprehensive book report celebrating a Newbery Medal winner (she chose Shiloh), and a scientific study of a native Ohio bird (she chose the wild turkey). They were due within two days of each other, and she had several weeks to complete each. We sat down with her school planner and mapped out reasonable due dates for each piece of each project, so that she would not get slammed at the end. With her busy music schedule, this lesson in non-procrastination was vital to her completing the projects on time (which she did).

I hope she doesn’t read this post, because I don't want her ever to think procrastinators win. Nevertheless, employers who procrastinated in preparing for the new overtime rules are feeling pretty good right about now.

BREAKING: Federal judge grants nationwide preliminary injunction against FLSA overtime rule

Consider this the judicial equivalent of a Hail Mary, or full-court buzzer beater, or a bottom-of-the-9th, 2-out grand slam.

Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has just issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the DOL’s impending December 1 change to the FLSA’s white-collar salary test.

Dropping some wage and hour wisdom on turkey giveaways

One law firm for which I used to work provided each staff member an annual Thanksgiving turkey as a holiday thank you to its employees. With the hindsight of two decades of employment-law experience, here’s my question—should the fair market value of that turkey been included in the employees’ regular rate of pay? Because if it was, the company would have to include its value in the calculation of employees’ overtime rates.

Some workplace haiku to start your week #haikuatwork

Lately, the news has been so grim, with elections, and overtime rules, and data breaches, and federal agencies that over-step and over-reach. I figured, why not start the holiday week with some levity.

Cleveland’s Fox 8 recently published a list of workplace haiku. Here are some of my favorites: