The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a response to an Illinois hog farm’s motion to dismiss its Title VII sexual harassment suit on behalf of a transgender former employee. The EEOC filed suit against Sis-Bro in Illinois federal court in March. The company’s president insisted on calling the unidentified former employee by her former name and criticized her for seeking gender-affirming care when Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted the certiorari petition of a retired Florida firefighter, who has asked the high Court to consider whether the anti-discrimination provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) apply to post-employment benefits for retirees. Karyn Stanley is challenging a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which dismissed her discrimination suit against the Read More

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) final rule that makes most noncompete agreements unenforceable, with a few exceptions, has been the target of significant litigation in recent months. The prohibition on noncompetes is inapplicable to certain industries, such as airlines, financial services, and non-profits, and to existing agreements with "senior executives." The final rule defines senior executives as people Read More

According to Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s leading drug-testing laboratories, positive marijuana tests among the U.S. workforce increased to 4.5% in 2023. The percentage of positive tests was 4.3% in 2022 and 3.1% in 2019. In 2023, Quest conducted about 8.4 million urine drug tests for employers, plus 1.3 million oral fluid tests and 73,000 hair tests. Meanwhile, the overall percentage of workers testing Read More

The new overtime rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is going into effect, and employers must ensure that their workplaces follow it. Although ongoing litigation concerning the rule is likely, employers cannot rely on potential outcomes in court cases to delay implementing the rule. The increased salary thresholds for overtime exemptions occur in two phases. The first phase occurred when the threshold Read More

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has upheld a review board decision awarding black lung benefit for a retired miner who smoked cigarettes during his 18-year career in the mines. The Court stated that it would not overturn the administrative law judge’s (ALJ) medical findings since the record contained substantial evidence to support the ruling. The case is Safeco Insurance/Liberty Mutual Read More

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will continue to consider whether a Texas federal court judge must stay an administrative suit against SpaceX before the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) in-house Court. The NLRB requested that the Fifth Circuit pause its deliberations on the issue, stating that it now agrees to the injunction requested by SpaceX to stay the in-house administrative proceedings. Read More

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman has denied a motion to dismiss a proposed class action in which marketing firm workers claim that the company’s wellness program violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Despite the company's stance that a medical exam for workers was voluntary, the judge found that workers provided sufficient evidence to the contrary that justified the suit moving forward. Read More

Counsel for Disney and Lucasfilm argued that a California federal district court judge should dismiss former “Star Wars” actor Gina Carano’s wrongful termination suit on First Amendment grounds. The media giant argued that the company has a First Amendment right to distance its artistic expression from Carano’s 2020 personal political statements on X, formerly known as Twitter, disparaging the use of pronouns and Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court implemented a stricter four-factor test that courts must apply when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeks an injunction against an employer allegedly engaging in unfair labor practices (ULPs). The case is Starbucks Corp. v. M. Kathleen McKinney, case number 23-367, U.S. Supreme Court. Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) authorizes the NLRB to seek injunctive Read More