Archives

‘No good deed’ for Microsoft, others in the high-tech sector

by Leslie E. Silverman There is a common refrain uttered by management lawyers, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Yes, it is cynical, but as employers in the high-tech sector are beginning to discover, it is often true. Currently, Microsoft is dealing with issues as a result of well-intended diversity and corporate social responsibility efforts.  Social […]

EEOC revises national origin discrimination guidance for changing workforce

by Arielle B. Sepulveda The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released proposed enforcement guidance on national origin discrimination for public comment. Once finalized, the guidance will serve as a reference for agency staff when they investigate and litigate national origin discrimination claims as well as a resource for employers and employees on the law […]

ADA defense: Disabled worker poses direct threat to health or safety

by Steven T. Collis You know you can’t discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability. But what if you are convinced the person’s disability would create a significant risk of harm to him or others if he’s allowed to perform the intended job? The “direct threat” defense may help you avoid liability for a […]

Privacy vs. practicality: when expectations collide

by Jo Ellen Whitney Plenty of reporters, commentators, and the twitterverse have all made statements that Hillary Clinton is way too invested in her personal privacy, citing various examples, including most recently her health.  As you will remember, former Secretary Clinton was escorted from the New York 9/11 memorial service appearing ill and there was […]

Onboarding Millennials and Generation Zs

Millennials will soon make up the majority of the workforce, and Generation Z (Gen Z) is right behind them. What types of challenges are employers facing when it comes to engaging Millennial and Gen Z new hires in the onboarding process? We have a few tips for optimizing your process for these new hires.

California Leads the Way on Paid Family Leave

It may not be a huge surprise for California HR professionals, but recent research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) shows that employers in California are ahead of the national average when it comes to paid family leave policies. Much of this trend is driven by state and local laws.

Apple Gets Bitten by Contract Interference Lawsuit

By Cathleen S. Yonahara, Freeland Cooper & Foreman LLP One of the largest tech companies in the world, Apple, Inc., recently bit off more than it could chew when it allegedly convinced an employer to terminate an employee in retaliation for his resistance to Apple’s allegedly illegal anticompetitive conduct. Read the details of this California […]

While You Were Gone … We Found out We Didn’t Need You

What happens when an employee is out on job-protected leave and an employer realizes that everything keeps moving along just fine without him or her or that his or her duties shouldn’t really take 40 hours per week? The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently had to decide just that.

California Employers Must Be Proactive with Arbitration Agreements

By Carolina A. Schwalbach, Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held class arbitration waivers to be enforceable, and since then, many arbitration agreements have been modified to include such waivers. Doing so has allowed employers to streamline the resolution of disputes that otherwise would be in an overburdened court system […]

California Gets an ‘A’ in FMLA Protections

A recent state-by-state analysis shows that not many states have expanded on the Family and Medical Leave Act’s (FMLA) unpaid leave protections or adopted other policies to help expecting and new parents who are employed. However, California received all ‘A’s for the state’s paid leave policy efforts.