The U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Brittany Panuccio as a commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is highly significant because it restores the quorum needed for many EEOC actions. The EEOC requires a simple majority vote to approve actions, but for most of the year, EEOC actions have been hobbled by only two sitting commissioners. With the addition of Panuccio, that number rises to Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has hit a 10-year low in the number of suits filed during FY2025. The EEOC filed 93 suits in FY2025, one of the lowest numbers in the past 30 years. In contrast, the EEOC filed 71 suits in just one month of FY2023.  Following the typical pattern, the EEOC’s FY2025 suits were primarily filed under Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Read More

Pay transparency is increasingly becoming a business requirement. Many states require job postings to include salary ranges, and state laws mandating pay transparency are only expanding. Due to the increasing requirements concerning pay transparency, employers need to not only be aware of their duties under pay transparency laws but also move toward practices that embrace them. As a result, employers must recognize Read More

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently considered the legal standard that employees must meet to sue their employers for harassment by customers. Although most courts have applied a negligence standard, the Sixth Circuit imposed a higher intent-based standard. The case is Bivens v. Zep Inc., 6th Cir., No. 24-2109 (Aug. 8, 2025). Zep Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of cleaning products to Read More

In early September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers executed their largest immigration raid at a single worksite in U.S. history. ICE detailed about 475 workers at the Hyundai Motor battery plant outside of Savannah, GA. More than 300 of the workers detained by ICE were South Korean nationals, who were present for a joint venture between Hyundai and LG Energy Solution to manufacture electric Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed suit against Piedmont Cheerwine Bottling Co. for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) after it required an employee with multiple sclerosis (MS) to submit to a medical exam and a physical agility test to obtain medical information and then fired her after receiving the results. The employee was a store merchandiser at Cheerwine’s Read More

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has announced that Lyft has paid off the $19.4 million it owed to the state for misclassifying drivers as independent contractors. The dispute originated when Lyft drivers filed for unemployment and disability benefits, triggering an audit of the rideshare company’s records from 2014 to 2017 by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce (NJDOL). Based on the audit Read More

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit in a North Carolina federal court against Smithfield Fresh Meats Corp. In its suit, the EEOC alleges that Smithfield violated the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it refused to accommodate a pregnant worker's medical restrictions and terminated her Read More

A federal court has certified a class action in the case of Does v. Musk, 2025 BL 291150, D. Md., No. 25-0462-TDC, 8/18/25. The case involves U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees who are part of a mass layoff directed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which plans to merge USAID with the U.S. State Department. The certification ensures that the USAID employees may pursue Read More

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials withdrew emergency use rules for some COVID-19 vaccinations and implemented stricter access rules for other COVID-19 vaccinations. The move has made employer coverage of COVID shots and other vaccinations far more complicated, even as a new wave of U.S. COVID infections has surged. Currently, U.S. residents are experiencing about 3.5 million new infections per week, Read More