The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) is a United States federal agency tasked with enforcing laws that prohibit workplace discrimination. Its primary role is to investigate and address complaints related to discrimination, harassment, or wrongful termination based on factors such as race/color, gender, national origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and disability. However, like most government run programs, the EEOC process is anything but perfect. Let’s take a closer look at this flawed governmental process. What are the steps in the EEOC process? Filing ..read more

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the Ohio Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (“OMFWSA”) require that all covered employers pay at least the applicable minimum wage and an overtime premium of one- and one-half times the regular rate when employees work more than forty hours per week. However, these laws also contain certain exemptions from this basic requirement. As our wage and hour attorneys have previously blogged, most of these exemptions contain two basic requirements: (1) that the employee perform certain job duties contained within the exemption, and (2) that the employee be paid o ..read more

Huge news in the business and legal world arrived on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 when the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 in favor to ban non-compete agreements between businesses and their workers (“FTC Rule”). The highlights of the FTC Rule would include a ban on all new non-compete agreements for all workers. Moreover, businesses would be required to provide sufficient notice to both current and past employees that existing non-compete agreements are no longer binding and/or will not be enforced by the business. The latter provision is of particular importance because it confirms tha ..read more

Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) finalized its regulations in line with the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”). The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law in the United States, aims to eradicate discrimination and guarantee workplace adjustments for employees with known limitations due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. It is applicable to employers with fifteen or more employees. The EEOC’s regulations were much debated on whether “abortion” would be afforded protection under the Act’s definition of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medi ..read more

As our employment discrimination lawyers have covered before, allegations of race/color discrimination and retaliation will not protect bad employees from being fired. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently gave us another example in Jeter v. Roberts, No. 22-13983, 2024 WL 507183 (11th Cir. Feb. 9, 2024). LaNitra Jeter, an African American woman, joined the Jefferson County DA’s Office as a Victim Services Officer (“VSO”) in April 2019. However, as early as September of the same year, concerns about her job performance began to surface. Michael McCurry, the DA Off ..read more

On Tuesday, I posted a blog post entitled, Forced Arbitration Sucks, Here’s Why. In the blog post, I outlined 14 separate reasons that forced arbitration causes significant problems for employees and briefly discussed the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing on the matter. In response, several readers reached out to ask for more information about how binding arbitration negatively impacts employees. To understand this best, it important to recognize that there is a micro or individual impact and a macro or global impact. Let me explain. First, for the reasons identified in t ..read more

On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, I was fortunate enough to accompany our client Joanne Grace to provide testimony before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary regarding the problems cause by forced arbitration. (See: Video, News Coverage). Grace, along with Gretchen Carlson and Professor Myriam Gilles of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, testified in favor of banning arbitration in a variety of contexts, including in cases involving age discrimination and race/color discrimination in the workplace. Just last Congress, in a bipartisan effort, fully supported by the ..read more

In the ever-changing landscape of employment law, it’s crucial to stay informed about your rights and legal options. Today, let’s dive into a recent case that underscores the importance of understanding the nuances of workplace discrimination, retaliation, and the significance of remedial training. In Moye v. Tregre, Sheriff, No. 22-30341, 2024 WL 65424, at *1–2 (5th Cir. Jan. 5, 2024), Sharleen Moye, who is a Black woman, took a stand against her termination, alleging race discrimination, disparate treatment, retaliation, and workplace harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 196 ..read more

The recent case of Sinico v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2024 WL 510521 (3rd Cir. Feb 9, 2024), provides a good example of employees needing to understand how to navigate and timely make requests for medical leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA“). What is FMLA interference and how do you prove it? FMLA interference occurs when an employer unlawfully denies or inhibits an employee’s rights under the FMLA. To prove FMLA interference, the employee must establish that they were entitled to FMLA leave, that the employer knew of their request for leave, and that the employer denied ..read more

Ashley Bush served as the head coach for the girls’ basketball team at Frederick High School. On February 5, 2020, several members of the varsity team decided to leave the team, alleging that Bush had been treating them abusively. Despite an investigation by the school, no evidence was found to substantiate these claims. On the same day, Bush held a meeting with her team to discuss the situation. Shortly after this meeting, an audio recording surfaced on Facebook claiming to capture Bush making derogatory remarks towards white people during the February 5 meeting – specifically, “f*ck white pe ..read more