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BT Currents - Hot Topics in Employment Law
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02 Jun 2017 Trump-Era Immigration Worksite Raid Threats May Bring New Requirements for California Employers

Employment Lessons | BT Currents

  Amidst fears of increased workplace immigration raids during Trump’s presidency, California’s legislature recently introduced a bill that, if passed, would ban employers from providing workplace access to immigration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials without a warrant. This bill could have enormous affects for California, where more than 2.6 million undocumented workers reside. Notably, almost one in every 10 California workers is undocumented, and undocumented workers make up almost half of California’s agricultural workforce.   The measure, AB 450, called the Immigrant…

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01 Jun 2017 Six Statements That May Mean Your Business Will Keep an Employment Lawyer Busy

Employment Lessons | Bill Nolan

  I recently posted elsewhere six things I hear employers say that, while understandable in some cases, may actually cost the employer money in legal fees (and, with some of them, judgments or settlements). Here are the statements and more info on why they are problematic:   “Noncompetes aren’t really enforceable. I’ll just hire him.” “I’ll just get a document off the internet.” “I’ll write it myself, then my lawyer can review it.” “Other employees are tired of having to cover for him being sick.”…

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31 May 2017 Four Potential Developments for Ohio Employers in the Workers’ Compensation Budget Bill

Employment Lessons | Adrienne Pietropaolo

  The Ohio House recently passed House Bill 27, which contains the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) two-year budget. While the budget bill now goes to the Senate, the following aspects of the bill are promising for Ohio employers:   Statute of Limitations Change   An injured worker currently needs to file a workers’ compensation claim within two years of the injury date or forever be barred from pursuing said course. However, House Bill 27 requires filing within one year of the date of injury….

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30 May 2017 Another Review of the EEOC’s Subpoena for ‘Pedigree Information’

EEOC, Employment Discrimination | BT Currents

  In a prolonged battle over the issue of whether an employer must respond to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) subpoena for “pedigree information” in connection with its investigation of a sex discrimination charge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the District Court in Arizona to review the matter again.   In 2013, former employee Damiana Ocho filed a charge of discrimination against McLane Company, alleging that the company discriminated on the basis of sex when it fired her…

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26 May 2017 Second Circuit Takes Second Look at Sexual Orientation Discrimination Under Title VII

Employment Discrimination | Koryn McHone

  The issue of whether Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is in the hot seat once again, this time being considered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as part of an en banc rehearing granted in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. d/b/a Skydive Long Island. The grant of the rehearing, to include all active judges and those senior judges involved in the original appeal, comes after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New…

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25 May 2017 Need to Check an Employee’s Criminal Background? Tread Carefully

EEOC | BT Currents

  Federal laws do not prohibit employers from asking about a job applicant’s criminal history. But equal employment opportunity (EEO) and federal laws prevent employers from discriminating against job applicants on the basis of this information. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has guidelines that establish the following rules:   Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from treating people with similar criminal records differently because of their race, national origin, color, sex or religion Title VII also prohibits employers from using policies…

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24 May 2017 Trump’s Proposed Paid Family Leave

Employee Leave | BT Currents

  In his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018, President Donald Trump allocated $20 billion to establish a “Federal-state paid parental leave program” within the unemployment insurance program. The paid family leave program would provide six weeks of paid leave benefits for mothers, fathers and adoptive parents. The program would begin in 2020.   Exact details on how this program would be run, however, were not provided in the proposed budget. However, the budget plan explained that states would have “broad latitude” in designing and…

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23 May 2017 OSHA Delays July 1 Electronic Reporting Requirement

Employment Lessons | Don Lawless

  Authored by Don Lawless, Mark Kittaka and Patricia Ogden   Last week, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it “is not accepting electronic submissions of injury and illness logs at this time, and intends to propose extending the July 1, 2017 date by which certain employers are required to submit the information from their completed 2016 Form 300A electronically.” No additional detail or explanation was provided. OSHA states that additional updates will be posted to the agency’s recordkeeping website when they become…

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23 May 2017 Ohio House Takes Steps to Modernize Outdated Antidiscrimination Statutes

High Stakes Employment Issues | Doug Oldham

  On May 9, the Ohio House of Representatives’ Economic Development, Commerce, and Labor Committee favorably reported on House Bill 2, a bill that would streamline and modernize Ohio’s archaic antidiscrimination statutes.   Ohio’s antidiscrimination statutes are currently some of the least friendly in the country to employers. There are lengthy statutes of limitations, along with individual liability for managers and uncapped damages. There are four ways to file an age discrimination claim, all with different statutes of limitations and remedies. A plaintiff can simultaneously…

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22 May 2017 College Not Required to Alter Academic Program for Reasonable Accommodation

Employment Lessons | Taylor Hunter

  After his requests for additional accommodations were denied, a student at the Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) who had medical issues related to a brain injury withdrew from the institution and filed suit. After a recent loss in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the student has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for consideration.   The student suffered from an anoxic brain injury that caused him to have memory problems. Similar to the accommodation analysis in an employment setting, the college…

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