(Please note: This week's "Friday" post is up a day early because our platform is getting a system upgrade beginning tomorrow and through the weekend. The blog will be available for viewing, but we will not be able to post anything new until Monday. So if you submit a comment after today and don't see it right away, please don't worry - we will have it up the first of next week. Thank you for your ...

Penn State. The Catholic Church. The schools. Employers are increasingly accused of covering up sexual abuse after they've reacted too slowly, or ineffectually, or after they've seemed to be too protective of "their own" and not concerned enough about the victims. I spoke this week with my colleague Jill Stricklin, who is a course planner for DRI's Sexual Torts program, which will ...

How's everybody weathering the shutdown? Kinda quiet right now.

The calm before the default.

But at least the federal courts are still open. Most of you have probably heard by now about the ruling from a federal court in New York in Wang v. Phoenix Satellite Television saying that an unpaid intern can't sue for sexual harassment under the City's Human Rights Law because she's not an ...

Abercrombie & Fitch has won a huge victory in one of its Muslim hijab-accommodation cases -- but will the decision stand?

As you know, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed two lawsuits against Abercrombie in California -- both of which have now settled -- but there was another one in Oklahoma, and it may be the most interesting of them all.

The EEOC won summary judgment ...

Following up on my Tuesday morning post on how the labor and employment agencies are affected by the government shutdown, I spoke with Colin O'Keefe of LXBN on the topic. In the brief interview, I explained what private employers should know about the shutdown and the effects on employees of the federal government.

One thing we did not discuss in the video or in my Tuesday post -- the ...

As everyone knows by now, the federal government shut down at 12 a.m. after the House and the Obama Administration failed to reach agreement on the Affordable Care Act. Essential activities, such as law enforcement, air traffic control, and Social Security payments, will continue as usual. But non-essential activities, which would include most of what our employment-law agencies ...

After having expressed concern (here and here) that penalizing employees for not participating in "voluntary" wellness programs may render the programs . . . er . . . involuntary*, my view was somewhat vindicated this week by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) in a letter that Rep. Slaughter sent to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

*Under the Americans with Disabilities Act ...

I am very sorry to say that Steve Warren, head of our firm's Greenville, South Carolina, office, and an outstanding labor lawyer and good friend, died this weekend after an extended illness. Steve came to our firm in 2008, after heading the Greenville office for Jackson Lewis.

Steve was highly respected for his legal ability, and much loved for his down-to-earth personality, his ...

Oh, no! I won't get equal pay until after I'm dead! And by then, I won't need it!

A study released this week by the Institute of Women's Policy Research says that at the rate we're going, women will not achieve pay equity until 2058.

Download Constangy's free iPhone app!

Actually, I think the IWPR is too optimistic about the closing of the pay gap in 2058. I predict that the pay gap will not be ...

Constangy came out Friday (the 13th! for good luck!) with a new, free iPhone app that is intended for Human Resources professionals and attorneys, and is really nice. (Android version will be coming soon.) If you haven't already downloaded it, you should.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am completely biased. I was a member of the committee that decided what would go into the app, and some of the content ...