When, if ever, is swearing at your supervisor or coworkers a federally protected activity? The National Labor Relations Board (Board) currently is reconsidering what constitutes protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Specifically, the board is trying to clarify when workers can be protected from discipline for using profanity or engaging in harassing
For Employers in the #MeToo Era: It’s Not the Harassment Claim, It’s the Retaliation Claim that Gets You
The era of #MeToo has caused employers to hyper-focus on harassment claims. They have fine-tuned their policies, investigated claims more carefully, and acted swiftly and sometimes even in a draconian fashion upon finding any level of harassment. In most situations, these actions can effectively eliminate an employee’s viable claims of harassment. We are seeing this
Who Judges the Judges? Federal Judiciary Adopts New Workplace Conduct Rules
In light of some recent allegations of harassment of court employees in certain circuits, it may come as no surprise that the federal Judicial Conference recently strengthened their rules prohibiting misconduct and obligating employees to report any misconduct behind the bench. The conference amended the Code of Conduct and Judicial Conduct and Disability Act rules