A federal appeals court panel has come out with a decision interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year in Young v. UPS, and the result wasn't too good for the employer.

The Sheriff's Department of Ulster County, New York, provided light duty for employees with work-related injuries but didn't provide it for anyone else. Plaintiff Ann Marie Legg, a corrections officer at the ...

Federal protection for trade secrets, "suitable seating," inadvertent labor trafficking, Uber's status as an employer -- whew!

Be sure to check these out if you haven't already:

*Billy Hammel of our Austin Office and Bill McMahon of our Winston-Salem Office (and my next-door neighbor), with Anna Rothschild of our Washington D.C. Metro Office, are digging into the federal Defend ...

You've heard of sex-based harassment, race-based harassment, and disability-based harassment.

But have you ever heard of Lego-based harassment?

Shawn Roy was terminated from his job because he was allegedly creating and posting on the internet violent and sexually-oriented videos using Legos that allegedly bore resemblance to his supervisors and co-workers. I viewed the one ...

The U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, has issued a new guide for employers on the Family and Medical Leave Act. I've only thumbed through it, but it seems to be pretty nicely done, and has some cute comics about the FMLA request/approval process.

(Seems like Will and Brenda could be a little friendlier, though.)

Here it is.

UPDATE (4/29/16): Here is the new FMLA poster

Congratulations on your newly acquired company! Now, what do you do about that union?

Our own David Phippen has the scoop in this article that appeared in Friday's Law360.

This will be my last "analysis" post on the wrongful discharge provisions of North Carolina's HB 2. (I know you are heartbroken!)

I'll continue to post on breaking HB 2-related news as it develops.

Several commenters disagreed with my contention that Charlotte's human rights ordinance, which was amended to include LGBT rights and then nullified by HB 2, would have been ...

No one is immune from wage-hour payouts. Not even a Human Resources consultant.

California HR consulting firm TriNet has reportedly agreed to pay approximately $1 million in overtime and liquidated damages to 267 employees. The payment is in settlement of a wage-hour investigation conducted by the San Francisco office of the U.S. Department of Labor.

According to the DOL ...

The Washington Post "Fact Checker" column gave Two Pinocchios last week to the "79-cent pay gap factoid." That's the factoid that says women make only 79 cents for every dollar that men make. Debunking that dubious statistic has been my life's work.

And "factoid" was the Post's word, not mine!

I am not just a blogger. I am a prophetess.

Dana Thrasher, head of our Employee Benefits Practice Group, offers her reflections on the U.S. Department of Labor's final Fiduciary Rule and what it means for those who provide investment advice.

And, if you haven't done so already, please do get over to visit our new FOCUS blog for Women Leaders in the Workplace and their friends. Subscription is free. It's cooler than a Harriet ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: As you know, my main collaborator on HB2-related developments has been my law partner, Jon Yarbrough, who is in our firm's Asheville Office. Jon has offered his thoughts about Executive Order No. 93, which Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed yesterday.

My initial thought is that Executive Order No. 93 is a whole bunch of nothing cloaked as something.

No. 1 - Regarding ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: Welcome to our Los Angeles-Century City Office, and to Steve Katz, who will be posting from time to time about the most peculiar of California’s employment laws.

California's wage orders, which regulate working conditions for most industries and occupations, require that "[a]ll working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of the work ...

Today marks the launch of FOCUS, our firm's new blog for women leaders in the workplace (and their friends and supporters). The inaugural edition features posts by Sarah Phaff of our Macon Office on Women's History Month, and Heidi Wilbur of our Denver Office on Overcoming Stereotype Threats (and Butterflies).

In addition to Sarah and Heidi, other editors and regular contributors ...

Thanks very much to the colleague who just sent me this. Gov. Pat McCrory (R) of North Carolina has signed Executive Order No. 93, which is somewhat of a backtrack on HB 2. Of interest to our readers in the employment community, the Governor declares that he supports restoration of the common-law cause of action for wrongful discharge based on violation of the state Equal Employment ...

For the background on this situation, please see my post from Friday on HB 2. I spoke for almost an hour Friday evening with reporter Greg Lacour from Charlotte Magazine, and he asked me to go through his April 4 article "The HB 2 Provision Few Are Talking About" point-by-point and tell him exactly what I thought was inaccurate. I did, and he told me he was going to publish a correction. I ...

Argh! I was hoping not to have to talk about HB 2 again (North Carolina's notorious "bathroom bill"), but there has been so much misinformation about what it did to wrongful discharge claims that I've just gotta.

UPDATE (6:20 p.m. Friday, 4/8/16): I had a good conversation this evening with Greg Lacour of Charlotte Magazine about his article. We agreed that his article did not ...

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled this week that obesity is not a "disability" within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act -- even as amended in 2009 -- unless the condition was caused by some underlying physiological disorder.

In addition, if the individual develops a medical condition because of the obesity (such as diabetes or ...

Dear Readers: Not that anything in this blog constitutes legal advice anyway, but before you accuse me of legal malpractice based on the following post, please notice today's date. Happy April Fool's Day! Robin

Many employers ask me: "Robin, what are your 'best practices' for workplace sexual harassment?" I'm glad you asked!

No. 1: Be sure that your policy on sexual harassment is ...

Glad that's settled.

We now have an April Fool's Day Persuader Rule challenge (but it's real). The National Federation of Independent Business leads this group of plaintiffs, and has filed suit in federal court in Texas, which is in the Fifth Circuit. The other two lawsuits were filed in Arkansas and Minnesota, both in the Eighth Circuit.

Here's our scorecard:

PERSUADER RULE SCORECARD

March 30