Department of Labor Working to Make Regulation of Workplace Toxic Environments More Difficult

While there may only be a few weeks left for the current administration, it certainly has not given up efforts to effect the country's HR laws.  Specifically, the Department of Labor is rushing its rule-making process to issue a rule making it more difficult for the government to regulate workers' exposure to toxic chemicals at work.  Here is an excerpt from a recent story in the New York Times:


The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by...

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[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]

Supreme Court Issues Unanimous Decision in Employment Retaliation Case

Last week the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in favor of the plaintiff in Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville (S.Ct. 1/26/09). The Court held that an employee who answers a question about a fellow employee's improper conduct during an internal sexual harassment investigation is engaging in protected activity under Title VII. 

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of race or sex. It also...

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[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]

Bad Economy Turning Employment Agreement Practice into Severance Agreement Practice

One of the staples of practicing HR Law is reviewing and drafting employment agreements for employees and employers.  Another is reviewing or drafting separation or severance agreements.  As a result, the primary way I gage how the economy is doing is by looking at whether I'm doing more employment agreements or severance agreements.  Care to take a guess at which way the tide has been shifting over the last six months?

One of the first areas you see such a shift is in...

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[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]

New Whistleblower Protections Enacted As Part of Stimulus Bill

Amid the many issues of taxes and spending in the economic stimulus bill, you may have missed that it contains Section 1553, which is full of new protections for whistleblowers who work for state and local governments or who work for private contractors receiving monies under the bill.

The idea behind the provision is that whistleblower protections will improve accountability and transparency in the way the public's monies are spent. And there is support for this proposition.  According...

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[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]

Do Federal Judges Discriminate Against Discrimination Claims?

The Wall Street Journal Blog and Paper has a story this week analyzing whether job discrimination plaintiffs get a raw deal in federal court

The WSJ piece examines that question, citing recent studies that show discrimination plaintiffs lose at a higher rate in federal court than other plaintiffs and more often get tossed out of court on summary judgments.


"From 1979 through 2006, federal plaintiffs won 15% of job-discrimination cases. By comparison, plaintiffs in other cases not...

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[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]

Eight Ways to Lose a Noncompete Case

One of my favorite employment law bloggers, Jay Shepherd, over at the Gruntled Employees Blog had a great post this past week on the "Eight Ways to Lose a Noncompete Case."  Here are his 8 most common ways companies usually LOSE noncompete cases: 

Putting too much faith in the belief that the court will enforce the language of the noncompete agreement as written.
Trying to enforce a noncompete against employees who really don't possess any confidential information...

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[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]

Supreme Court Issues Unanimous Decision in Employment Retaliation Case

Last week the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in favor of the plaintiff in Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville (S.Ct. 1/26/09). The Court held that an employee who answers a question about a fellow employee's improper conduct during an internal sexual harassment investigation is engaging in protected activity under Title VII. 

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of race or sex. It also...

Read More...

[Source: HR Lawyer's Blog]