The Supreme Court recently reversed a long-standing doctrine established by the 1984 decision, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The Court returned the duty of interpreting ambiguous statutory provisions involving federal agency rulings to the district...
Content By Maribeth Meluch
EEOC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Faces Legal Challenges: Key Takeaways for Employers
Within the last two weeks, courts across the country reached opposite conclusions about the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s authority to implement legislation that requires employers to provide accommodations for employees who seek “purely elective...
Supreme Court Sides with Starbucks in Long-Awaited Union Battle: Implications for Employers and Employees
In an eight-to-one decision this month, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Starbucks in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, involving a longstanding legal battle against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB was advocating on behalf of a labor union...
Sixth Circuit Rules That Accommodation Requests Under the ADA Can Be Inferred Without Explicit Employee Request
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, which lowered the threshold for employees to demonstrate discrimination under Title VII, the Sixth Circuit has expanded the scope of what employers should recognize as requests for...
Supreme Court Returns Title VII to Its Roots and Lowers the Standard to Prove Discrimination
Overview of Title VII Protections Title VII makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees on the basis of their gender, race, national origin, color or religion. Nowhere does it provide an express definition of discrimination or establish a standard a plaintiff...
Department of Labor Issues Final Rule Elevating Minimum Salary for Overtime Exempt Workers
The DOL has issued its final rule on overtime exempt workers, surpassing all expectations and setting a minimum salary threshold sixty-five percent (65%) higher than current thresholds in a two-step process. Last year, we delved into the DOL’s efforts in its proposed...
A Lesson in Employee Rights: NLRB Ruling Against Home Depot’s Dress Code Enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that a Minnesota Home Depot Store broke the law by telling an employee to remove a “BLM” marking from their work apron. The NLRB has recently decided in Home Depot USA, Inc. and Antonio Morales Jr that conditioning...
Back to the Future: The Department of Labor Issues Its New Rule on Independent Contractors
The Department of Labor has long labored to rein in the practice by some employers of labeling workers as independent contractors instead of employees to avoid the requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to pay minimum wage and overtime. It has now...
Recreational Marijuana Use Becomes Legal in Ohio: Here is What Employers Need to Know
On November 7, 2023, Ohio voters passed An Act to Control and Regulate Adult Use of Cannabis (the Act), making Ohio the 24th state to legalize recreational adult use of marijuana. While Ohio and its Department of Commerce is far from retail sale or distribution of...
NLRB Makes Good on Its Promise to Challenge Non-Competes
In her Memorandum issued on May 30, 2023, General Counsel Abruzzo announced her belief that non-competes should be discouraged, if not outright prohibited, as they chill employees’ rights to concerted activity in violation of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations...