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Kate Griffin is an associate in the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. Her experience includes working on a range of labor and employment litigation matters, such as situations involving Title VII, ADA, wage and hour law, FMLA, OSHA, and workers’ compensation. In addition, she has assisted clients in preparing a variety of employee-related documents, including employment agreements, severance plan agreements, and workplace handbooks.

Can you compel arbitration with an employee who is alleging sexual harassment? You may recall that in 2022, Congress enacted the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), which precludes employers from requiring employees to arbitrate sexual harassment claims. But what if the alleged harassment occurred before the EFAA effective date?

The federal government says healthcare employers can soon stop requiring employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Yes — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is sunsetting the requirement that covered providers have staff COVID-19 vaccination policies. Published in the Federal Register on June 5, 2023, CMS’s

If you take on a federal contract, does that make you a state actor? No, according to a unanimous Sixth Circuit panel in Ciraci v. J.M. Smucker Company.

The Facts

During World War II, the Army included Smucker’s apple butter in its ration kits, resulting in a federal contractor relationship that has “stuck” ever