Can you have a no pets at work policy? What if an employee has a service dog? What if it is an emotional support dog? As with all things legal (and ADA), it depends, and you should give some thought and engage in an interactive process before saying no.
Consider this scenario: Carmen, your receptionist
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.
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
The United States Department of Labor recently issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2023-1 (FAB), which provides guidance to agency officials on a number of telework issues. The FAB addresses (1) paying workers who telework properly under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); (2) reasonable break time for nursing employees to express milk while teleworking from
On February 28, the White House issued a memorandum giving federal employees 30 days to remove the TikTok application from any government devices. This memo is the result of an act passed by Congress that requires the removal of TikTok from any federal information technology. The act responded to concerns that the Chinese government may
In a highly anticipated ruling under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the U.S. Supreme Court in Helix Energy Solutions v. Hewitt held that an employee did not qualify for the highly paid exemption from the FLSA’s overtime pay requirements because he was paid a daily rate and not a guaranteed weekly salary. The Court held
Employers sometimes face difficult decisions after learning of an employee’s disability. What if you learn of a disability after ongoing repeated employment deficiencies or even after a disciplinary or discharge decision already has been made? Do you stay on course for the discharge? Add more time (give them another chance)? Reverse course completely? As with
Most of us know that when an employee or visitor to a place of public accommodation requests a reasonable accommodation, the ADA requires an interactive process to make an individualized determination. But what about a request from a nursing intern to bring her service dog… to a hospital… around patients? Could this qualify as a
An increase in both the number of individual whistleblower plaintiffs and individual defendants in False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuits in the fiscal year 2022 shows that individuals continue to play an essential role in FCA cases. Whistleblowers filed 652 FCA suits in 2022, resulting in more than $1.9 billion in settlements and judgments, and a
Do you have to pay an employee on military leave? Generally, you only have to pay for military leave if you pay employees on “comparable” leaves. So what is a comparable leave? In Clarkson v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., the Ninth Circuit recently held the comparability analysis under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment
If an employer hires undocumented workers, are they covered under the U.S. employment laws? Initially, employers must complete Form I-9s for all new employees and cannot hire workers who are unable to establish that they’re authorized to work. But once hired, the script flips and undocumented workers generally enjoy the same legal protections as the