The State of Washington has been a leader in pay transparency law.  The Equal Pay and Opportunities Act prohibits gender pay discrimination by addressing business practices that contribute to income disparities between genders.  Further, all pay ranges and benefits for a job advertisement must be in the posting.   Specifically, a “posting” is defined as any solicitation, including recruitment done directly by an employer or indirectly through a third...

With remote work and the new reality of the workplace since the pandemic, employee loneliness has grown dramatically. Studies show that loneliness brings health problems, reduced productivity, turnover, and burnout. A BetterUp report demonstrates how the pandemic fractured workplace relationships — with 43% of respondents saying they don’t feel a connection to their coworkers.  Some 38% said they don’t trust their coworkers, and 22% said they don’t have a single...

On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (EO).  The EO is a sweeping directive to government agencies to coordinate on all aspects of AI.  As the EO states in Section 1:

The U.S 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a case can go to trial on whether an employer was required to provide an accommodation to an employee that had difficulty driving at night and whose shift ended at 9:00 p.m.  According to the court, the main question before it is whether the employee was entitled to a modified work schedule as an accommodation to make his commute safer.

On Friday October 26th the NLRB promulgated their final rule on joint employment.  The rule replaces a 2020 policy that excused alleged joint employers from bargaining unless workers could show they had "direct and immediate control."  This policy, according to the majority of NLRB members, was "contrary to the common-law agency principles that must govern the joint-employer standard" under the National Labor Relations Act.   

In the past, employers did not actively surveil employees except in two major areas.  First, the internet.  Employers had to make sure that employees were not going to illicit sites.  Second, on factory floors.  For many, insurance coverage played a role in filming employee activity in case of accidents and other like activities.  There is also recording of calls for customer service, for example, that are stated to be used for training purposes. 

Many HR professionals have done internal investigations and had to determine the truthfulness or credibility of the person being interviewed.  Generally, doing these investigations means that regardless of who is involved, the investigator must have an open mind without any prejudice to conduct a fair and impartial investigation.  It can be difficult because the person being interviewed may be known to HR either personally or through the eyes of the supervisor, but any...

On Monday October 2, 2023, the EEOC released its new proposed Harassment Guidance for comment to the public.  Comments must be in by November 1, 2023. 

In a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is claiming a program that solicits employee feedback created a union because the company discussed the issues with the employees (T-Mobile v. NLRB, Nos. 22-1310 and 23-1002). 

Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around in one form or another for the past 30 years, with the advent of the web and ability to electronically link large datasets, AI is coming on its own.  The AI transformation from work to daily life is coming on strong and fast, but not fast enough to immediately eliminate a number of jobs.

Since 1966 private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees and that meet certain criteria are required to report annually the number of individuals they employ by job category, sex, and race or ethnicity.  The EEO-1 report, although filed in 2023, is for the 2022 year.  So, the report is called 2022 EEO-1 Component 1.

More than half of the working population in 2021, 155 million, relied on employer health coverage. While average premiums are up 4% from 2020, costs are up 47% when comparing 2021 to 2011. Deductibles have surged 68.4% over the last decade with the advent of high deductible plans.

Under general EEO law, federal anti-discrimination law liability arises depending on the federal circuit court of appeals in three situations:  the Sixth Circuit prohibits any “materially adverse change in the terms of employment;” the Ninth Circuit prohibits any adverse treatment “reasonably likely to deter” the plaintiff from engaging in protected activity; and finally, the Fifth and Eighth Circuits prohibit an “ultimate employment decision.” ...

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program’s new scheduling letter.  The updated scheduling letter applies to supply and service compliance evaluations scheduled on or after August 24, 2023.

Charlene Carter was a flight attendant at Southwest.  She allegedly claimed that she was fired because she objected to her union's participation in a protest for which Planned Parenthood was a sponsor.  Prior to that, Carter sent repeated messages on social media to the president of Carter's flight attendant union, expressing outrage over the union president’s alleged pro-abortion beliefs. The union president attended the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C....

iTutorGroup Inc. will pay $365,000 to a group of approximately 200 rejected job seekers age 40 and over, according to a consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The 2022 lawsuit against iTutorGroup Inc was the first by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) involving a company's use of AI to make employment decisions.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued final regulations on August 4, 2023, that essentially gut the 2020 rule on Predetermination Notices (PDN).  Essentially, the new rule takes out all transparency of the conciliation process. 

A recent case from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Braidwood Management, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, No. 22-10145 (5th Circuit Court of Appeals, 6/20/23), has opened the door for a possible super statute that can override the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In other words, a company who may be a for-profit but with a religious bent, think Hobby Lobby, could discriminate in hiring, for example, against someone of the LGBTQ community, a mother out of wedlock, and more. ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming at a fast and furious pace.  Employers have to strategize the impact of AI on its operations.  A study from researchers at Stanford University and MIT indicate that AI platforms such as ChatGPT could make workers more productive faster, meaning that certain skills, such as customer service positions, could be up and running in a shorter time than in the past.

The Colorado legislature has passed the Ensure Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, amending the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (EPEW) to clarify and enhance an employer’s obligations relating to the announcement of a promotional opportunity.  The effective date is January 1, 2024.  Why does this matter to Michigan employers?  Because Michigan is seemingly taking all of the progressive employment initiatives throughout the country and trying to pass them into law...

The Supreme Court ruled on June 30th in Creative LLC v. Elenis, No. 21–476 (6/30/23) that the First Amendment prohibits the state of Colorado, through its antidiscrimination statute, from forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees.  Although it is framed as a public accommodation case, this case, along with the Groff v. DeJoy, Postmaster General (600 U.S.___2023) religious accommodation case, may make it interesting...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last Thursday in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, No. 20–1199 (2023) that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s race-conscious admissions policies violate the Constitution in a split 6-3 ruling condemning affirmative action in higher education. The case overturned Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 306 (2003) and ended all affirmative action for college admissions except for military academies. The funny thing is that in both cases,...

ChatGPT and other AI tools are being used by employees to perform their jobs.  In one survey, it was found that around 43% of employees use AI such as ChatGPT at work, mostly without telling their boss.  The problem isn’t just the use of these tools, but the fact employees are providing potentially confidential information to the tools to create solutions. Once the confidential information is in the AI tool, which is a generative AI tool, continuously learning, it is...

A lack of soft skills appears to be a bigger problem than most organizations expected.  Many of the college graduates today were going to school during the heyday of the pandemic – studying and attending class remotely.  Because of the pandemic, many lost out on personal growth with social skills.  This could be a problem not just for current graduates but also for future graduates over the next few years.  What are organizations doing to onboard these...

On May 18, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released Technical Assistance on the use of advanced technologies in the workplace titled Select Issues: Assessing Adverse Impact in Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence Used in Employment Selection Procedures Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“TA”).