Once again individual employee whistleblowers had an active year pursuing issues for the government under the False Claims Act (FCA). In 2025, FCA recoveries reached their highest mark ever at over $6.8 billion. Of that, over $5 billion came from qui tam suits filed by whistleblowers, with an increased amount coming from cases pursued by
Questions about employee monitoring, especially electronic monitoring, come up regularly these days. Monitoring can involve email, computer log-in history, surveillance cameras, GPS devices, and various types of production metrics. Care is necessary, however, not to run afoul of various labor and privacy laws.
Why do employers implement monitoring policies? Reasons
On January 16, 2026, a federal jury in Atlanta awarded $5.5 million to a security guard who alleged that her security company’s vice president of operations sexually harassed her.
The plaintiff, Makita Bryant, sued both the security company and the vice president in his individual capacity. For her claims against the security company, Bryant was
On January 19, 2026, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a blistering 74-page advisory opinion asserting the unconstitutionality of many common diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in both the public and private sectors. While the opinion at times veers more towards policy signaling than fresh legal analysis, employers should take note, especially where it
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) may not be the first employment law that comes to mind when an employer wants to reduce legal risks and avoid potential pitfalls. However, the FCRA has a number of requirements that employers must follow when obtaining background checks. As one recent case highlights, these requirements are important to
Update: The EEOC voted 2-1 along party lines to rescind the 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace in its entirety. The EEOC’s objections to the guidance primarily related to the sections of the guidance regarding harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including with respect to preferred pronouns and bathroom access. However
While the EEOC had a quiet 2025 due to its lack of a quorum (only two of five commissioners) and the lengthy government shutdown, there is potential change on the horizon. One area of interest for the EEOC is its Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace issued in 2024. We blogged about that 2024
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division welcomed the new year by issuing six new opinion letters on January 5, 2026 — four regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and two regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). As background, opinion letters explain how the DOL applies federal employment laws
We’ve all been there: An employee takes time off (think FMLA or other protected leave), and then you need to take an adverse employment action. Can you do so and risk the inevitable retaliation claim? Do you have to wait some amount of time so the employee’s potentially protected activity isn’t so fresh on everyone’s