Louise Davies is an Affirmative Action Paralegal in Constangy's Winston-Salem, North Carolina, office. For more than 15 years, she has helped employers develop affirmative action plans and respond to audits and on-site investigations by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. She also conducts diversity training for employers. Louise is a graduate of Wesleyan ...

For all those who have died serving our country, thank you. Rest in peace.

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by Beverly.

Last week, we talked about employment investigations. This week, I'd like to talk about what employers do with the information they gathered during the investigation. There are two main tasks:

No. 1: Figure out what probably happened.

No. 2: Decide what action to take based on No. 1.

It's almost impossible to generalize about No. 1 because the results will vary ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Connecticut, New York, and Vermont) agreed yesterday to rehear en banc an appeal from the estate of a gay skydiving instructor who alleged he was fired after a customer complained about his sexual orientation. The case is Zarda v. Altitude Express.

The issue to be decided by the court is "Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...

OSHA intends to postpone requirement that safety reports be submitted electronically for all the world to see. You may recall that, about a year ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a rule that would require certain employers to submit some injury and illness reports electronically. The information would then be made publicly available. Now OSHA says ...

Memorial Day is upon us. While the idea of a three-day weekend, cookout, and pool party can be distracting, I encourage everyone to stop and remember those who have lost their lives in the service of our country. It’s also a perfect time for us to refresh ourselves on the legal obligations of federal contractors to employ veterans. "We honor the dead best by treating the living ...

Yesterday, the Trump Administration released its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018, which runs from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018. Here are the highlights related to labor and employment law, and there are a BUNCH. The following is a compilation of a number of articles published in yesterday's edition of Bloomberg BNA's Daily Labor ...

The May edition of ConstangyTV's Close-Up on Workplace Law has just been released. Host Leigh Tyson -- who is now co-chair of our Labor Relations Practice Group in addition to being a YouTube star --  interviews Mel Haas, veteran labor lawyer and head of our Macon Office, about what employers can do to create a satisfied workforce. You will not want to miss this ...

What a bunch of cold fish.

The town council of Overtornea, Sweden, recently rejected a proposal to give workers one-hour paid sex breaks. According to The New York Times, the council member who made the proposal believed it would help raise the town's low birthrate. But the town council decided "that if sexual intercourse should be subsidized ...

What makes a workplace investigation so good that you just can't wait to show the EEOC investigator what you did? And you're like, "Plaintiff's lawyer, take us to court -- please!"

All right, maybe nothing would make it that good, but here are nine things employers can do to ensure that they at least won't be ashamed of ...

Last week, I wrote about a report in Bloomberg BNA that the Trump Administration was thinking about letting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "absorb" the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. The idea had some appeal for me because both agencies enforce variants on federal prohibitions against discrimination. But I admitted that I hadn't thought it ...

*Donnybrook: Named for the Donnybrook Fair near Dublin, "a notoriously disorderly event, held annually from 1204 until the middle of the 19th century." Meaning a "free-for-all; brawl; a usually public quarrel or dispute."

I promised earlier this month to have more detail about that decision by an Administrative Law Judge in the case filed against Google by the Office of Federal ...

Happy Mother's Day weekend to all of you who are, or who have, mothers.

(I think that covers everybody.)

I couldn't think of a better way to start this weekend than with a quiz on pregnancy discrimination, lactation accommodation, "family discrimination," and the Family and Medical Leave Act. As always, answers are at the end of ...

Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month? (Neither did I, but I do now.) Our beloved blogger Mallory Schneider Ricci is back at FOCUS, our women's leadership blog, with a post about mental health issues that affect women -- and men -- in the legal profession, and what they can do to take care of themselves.

The March-April Executive Labor Summary is out! David Phippen

NLRB candidates being vetted. Bloomberg BNA reported last night that President Trump has settled on two candidates to fill the two vacant seats on the National Labor Relations Board. One is William Emanuel, a shareholder in the Los Angeles Office of the management-side law firm Littler Mendelsohn. Here is a link to his firm bio. The other is Marvin Kaplan, counsel to a Commissioner ...

A number of studies are showing that most, if not all, of the gender pay gap is explained by personal choices made by men and women. But how can employers protect themselves from claims of discrimination?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, in 2015, women working full-time had median earnings that were 81 percent of the median earnings of their male counterparts. That is ...

The Working Families Flexibility Act of 2017 passed the House this week, 229-197. I honestly do not understand why Democrats are opposed to this legislation. I discussed the details of the bill in this post in April. For those who are worried that workers will be deprived of their overtime pay, here are a few points to keep in mind:

1. The worker can always choose to take overtime pay instead of ...

An article in Monday's New York Post discussed misunderstandings that can arise in the workplace based on use of "chat" apps and their associated emoji. A woman interviewed for the article said that she had messaged her co-workers that she would be late for a meeting, and her boss replied with emoji of a "poop" (am I allowed to use that word on this blog?) and a clock.

She was like, what?

She ...

My law partner Heather Owen of our Jacksonville Office is back this week at FOCUS, our women's leadership blog, with the third and final part of her series on "How the FLSA hurts women." Her post this week provides specific examples of scenarios in which the relatively rigid requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act make work difficult for women who are trying to balance their ...

I recently complained that Amy Dickson, author of the "Ask Amy" syndicated advice column, had given some poor (or at least premature) employment law advice to a reader. Apparently, a number of her readers expressed similar concerns, and, to her credit, Amy has corrected herself -- twice now.

The first correction appeared this past Monday:

Dear Amy: “Worried Worker” ...

Employers in St. Louis City must pay their employees a minimum wage of $10 an hour beginning tomorrow—Friday, May 5. The Mayor’s Office just announced that the injunction on the minimum wage ordinance has been lifted. Noncompliance with the ordinance subjects employers to prosecution in municipal court along with potentional revocation of business licenses and occupancy ...

I posted in January about a lawsuit filed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs against Google, seeking to force Google to provide detailed information about its equal employment practices and affirmative action program, including compensation information. Google had already provided some information to the OFCCP but contended the information that it withheld ...