Tougher interviews make for more loyal employees:  Making job interviews more challenging could be a cost-effective way for employers to entice new hires, according to new research from the job-review website Glassdoor.  Young workers were more receptive than older workers to tough job interviews, with accepted offers among candidates ages 25 to 34 rising 3.1 percentage points after more difficult screenings. Glassdoor parsed data from nearly 100,000 job candidates who used its website between January 2018 and November 2019, capturing their careers moves and asking them to rate their interview experiences.  Among candidates for professional and technical jobs, raising the interview difficulty by even one level, as rated by job seekers on a five-point scale, was enough to lift acceptance rates by 2.6 percentage points, Glassdoor data show.   Having candidates complete skills tests as part of the vetting process raised acceptance rates by 2.5 percentage points. In contrast, taking a personality quiz as part of an interview lowered acceptance rates by 2.3 percentage points. Source:  The Wall Street Journal 2/26/20<

FMLA does not cover sister:  An Apple employee who took time off to care for the children of his seriously ill sister was not protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), ruled a federal district court in Ohio.  Edward Brede took about one day off every two weeks to care for his niece and nephew and was eventually fired for an unrelated issue, though his performance evaluations mentioned his "spotty attendance," and he was allegedly denied a promotion for his "inability to come to work." Brede claimed that his leave was protected by FMLA because he was caring for the children in loco parentis — in the role of a parent — due to his sister's medical condition.  The court concluded that Brede's leave was not covered by FMLA. Even if he was in fact acting in loco parentis to his niece and nephew, he never claimed that either of the children were experiencing an FMLA-covered medical issue that required his care; it was his sister who was ill. Even if Brede's childcare could be viewed, by extension, as caring for his sister, "FMLA does not entitle an employee to take leave to care for a sibling with a serious health condition," said the court.   Source:  HR Dive 3/5/20

Schmoozing may lead to pay disparities:  Male employees who bond with their male managers move up the ranks of their companies faster, reinforcing the gender pay gap by 39%, according to research by Zoe B. Cullen. Social bonding among men may account for more than a third of the gender gap in promotions, according to the working paper The Old Boys’ Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap (pdf).  Some companies have taken steps to break down barriers for women in the workplace—for instance, by addressing bias problems in their recruitment, hiring, and promotion processes and by conducting pay audits to evaluate salaries by gender. Yet Cullen’s research suggests that companies may need to consider more subtle underlying forces that are holding women back, specifically all the extra time male workers spend hanging out with male managers.  #Metoo may also be a root to this problem.  Harvard Business School 3/4/20

ACA before the U.S. Supreme Court again:  The U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed once again to determine the fate of the embattled Affordable Care Act in the wake of arguments from the Trump administration and a group of Republican-led states that the entire law should be thrown out. Before the high court, the Democratic coalition, led by California, is vying to overturn a December ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. A divided panel ruled that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance—which the Supreme Court upheld in 2012 as a constitutional tax—was no longer constitutional because Congress in 2017 zeroed out the tax penalty for failure to have insurance.  The high court petition raises three issues stemming from the Fifth Circuit decision: whether the Republican-led states and individual plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the ACA because they had suffered no injury; whether the individual mandate is constitutional; and whether the mandate can be severed from the rest of the act.  Source:  Law.com  3/2/20

Policies that may lead to age discrimination charges:  >IKEA has two policies which may considered potentially negatively impacting age per a collective class action against the company.  First, Ikea has a “potential policy,” which the employee claimed that IKEA used "potential" as a proxy for "youth" in order to assess promotability in an age-biased manner. The employee also alleged that the employer’s assessment of employees’ "potential" was part of a pattern and practice of intentional discrimination, or, in the alternative, was a facially neutral policy that resulted in a disparate impact on older workers’ promotion rates.  Second, IKEA has a “relocation policy” that is comprised of two specific sub-policies—one which favored applicants that were willing to relocate, regardless of whether the position required it, and the other rescinding relocation assistance offers. The trial court agreed that both sub-policies could be shown to have a disparate impact on older workers, such as if older workers have less willingness or ability to move than younger workers.  Therefore, HR should review the language in their policies to ensure it doesn’t impact age while appearing neutral on its face.  One area that EEOC reviews is the new college recruitment page.  EEOC has stated in the past that new college recruitment is discriminating against new entrants into the industry jobs who may be older.  Source:  CCH 2/20/20

Quorums expected at EEOC and NLRB:  The five-member EEOC is down to three members, and one -- former Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic (R) -- has already announced that she will not seek a third term when her current term expires in July.  The President last week nominated three, one Democrat and two Republicans. If the Senate confirms them, then the EEOC will be fully staffed.  The first nominee is really a re-nominee: Keith Sonderling (R), whom President Trump nominated last year but who was not confirmed. Mr. Sonderling is currently deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.  The two new nominees are Andrea Lucas (R), an associate in the law firm where Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia was a partner, and Jocelyn Samuels (D), Executive Director of the Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law. According to its website, the Williams Institute "is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy." For the five-member NLRB, Trump selected former board member Lauren McFerran to fill one of two open Democratic seats on the five-member labor board. She left the board when her previous term expired in December.  Trump also picked current board member Marvin Kaplan to serve a fresh term. Kaplan, whose term is due to expire in August, was first nominated by Trump to serve on the labor board in 2017.  Source: Law360 3/2/20