WIRTW #616: the “cocktail” edition

Have you heard about Pravda Brewery, in Lviv, Ukraine. It has stopped producing craft beer and instead is making Molotov cocktails for the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces.

Yuri Zastavny, the brewery's owner, told Fox News that he and his workers decided to use their knowledge of chemistry, skills, supplies, and labor to contribute to the fight.

"Once we understand what can come through beer — because it’s no time for beer, we need to get other things sorted out — we decided to make Molotov cocktails because we can use bottles, we can use the people, and it was a grassroots idea." 

Zastavny added, "If you can brew, then you can make Molotov cocktails."

This is most definitely not what I had in mind when I decided to become a beer lawyer.

Here's what I read this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

Brewery CEO out after backlash to controversial vaccine comments

Vaccine mandates are a crime against humanity.

If you are not speaking out against them, you are a conspirator.

Those are the words Josh Stylman, the co-founder and now former CEO of Brooklyn, New York's Threes Brewing, recently shared on his personal Twitter account. He's also compared vaccine mandates to Jim Crow laws, the Nazi regime, and other historical atrocities. 

I’m not quite ready to declare the pandemic over, but I am ready to stop writing about it every single day

Nearly two years ago, I re-branded the Ohio Employer Law Blog as the Coronavirus Law Blog. It was a bit of marketing combined with the realization that Covid would be all that mattered to employers, at least in the short term.

That "short term" will turn two years old in nine days.

Today, however, I am officially re-re-branding the blog back to the Ohio Employer Law Blog.

If you want to get yourself into discrimination hot water, stereotype your protected-class employees

To cases recently settled by the EEOC illustrate the point that stereotypes of protected-class employees are a quick path an expensive lesson.

• Ranew's Management Company agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a disability discrimination claim after it fired an employee based on a "lack of trust" instead of permitting her to return from a leave of absence resulting from severe depression.

• American Freight Furniture and Mattress agreed to pay $5,000,000 to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit based on allegations that managers made hiring decisions based on bias and stereotypes, including that women would not "do as great a job at selling furniture as men," could not work in the warehouse because "women can’t lift," and that female employees would be " distraction" to their male coworkers. 

Coronavirus Update 2-28-22: CDC eliminates mask guidance for 70% of Americans

The CDC has issued new mask guidance based on the level of Covid-19 in a specific county. 

• In counties with a low level of Covid (green) — individuals are permitted to remove masks.

• In counties with a medium level of Covid (yellow) — individuals who are at high risk for severe illness are recommended to talk to their healthcare provider about whether they need to wear a mask and take other safety precautions.

• In counties with a high level of Covid (red) — individuals are recommended to wear a mask indoors in public.

WIRTW #615: the “prayers” edition

I pray for the people of Ukraine.

I pray for democracy.

I pray for diplomacy.

I pray for Europe.

I pray for troops everywhere, ours and everyone else's.

I pray that we are not seeing the beginning of WWIII.

I pray for peace.

I pray that I'm wrong about WWIII, but as a student of history I don't think I am.

Here's what I read this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

I hate “Tattleware”

I thought I had my next Worst Employer nominee. News broke yesterday of the mass exodus of employees from real estate company CoStar after allegations came to light of the company spying on work-from-home employees through the cameras on the company-issued laptops. I even had the post written. 

But in further researching the issue I came across this story that ran yesterday on the Today Show: 'Tattleware': How your boss might be tracking your remote activity. 

Its use skyrocketed as most companies switched to a work-from-home model during the Covid-19 pandemic.