“I’m speaking my mind because I have a right to free speech.” We’ve all heard that haven’t we? In the words of Lee Corso: “Not so fast, my friend.” The First Amendment gives protection from governmental action. So, in most circumstances, federal, state, and local government employers (i.e., public employers) cannot take action against employees
Can you have noncompetes with employees or not? For a long time, state law governed the enforceability of noncompetes and then in April 2024, the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission voted to ban noncompete agreements almost entirely. The rule faced immediate legal challenges, and employers were left scrambling to change agreements or abandon them entirely.
You want a safe workplace and have adopted a Drug Free Workplace policy. You may even have government contracts that require you to drug test your employees. How does the brave new world of legalized marijuana, medical marijuana, and CBD products fit in? The answer, like many legal questions, depends. However, in Flannery v. Peco
Are home health and personal care workers eligible for overtime? That is a more complicated question than it first appears. In fact, it could be about to change again as certain providers of home health and personal care workers face a major shift as the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
An employee tells you a customer just harassed them — what should you do? In Bivens v. Zep, Inc. the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals charts its own course in addressing employer liability for third-party harassment.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the
Following a number of 2025 executive orders and combined guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice (DOJ) targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a July 29, 2025, nine-page memorandum issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi provides more specific guidance on DEI initiatives by recipients of federal funding, and may
Just this week, in Richards v. Eli Lily & Co., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals became the third circuit to depart from the long-standing Lusardi standard for distributing notice to potential plaintiffs in collective actions. The Seventh Circuit adopted a new test that lower courts must now follow to determine whether notice should
If an employee complains about a sexually suggestive picture circulating in the workplace that looks like her but is not, is that a hostile work environment complaint? It might be. In Lillian Carranza v. City of Los Angeles, a California appeals court recently upheld a $4 million verdict for a former Los Angeles Police
While artificial intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool in a manager’s arsenal when it comes to efficiently making decisions, it is essential to use it ethically and fairly. Companies are no longer relying on AI solely to automate repetitive tasks or produce predictive analytics — recent studies have shown that over 60% of managers
Maybe you are one of the lucky employers who has not been sued in court or received a charge filed with a federal or state agency enforcing employment laws, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the Department of Labor (DOL). If you have been litigation free so far, chances are that the odds