Is it legal to bribe your employees to be healthy? Wouldn't that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or something? 

In other words, is it legal any more for an employer to offer incentives  -- like, money? -- to employees to participate in "voluntary" wellness programs?

The Bureau of National Affairs has obtained and released ...

Odds and ends from the employment law world this week:

Facebook rant about wages didn't create retaliation claim. Molly DiBianca of the Delaware Employment Law Blog reports on a decision from a federal court in Florida saying that a Facebook rant about an employer's alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime provisions was not "protected activity" that would trigger ...

Are no-fault attendance policies to go the way of the horse and buggy?

Employers would do well to ask themselves that question, in light of the recent $20 million settlement between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Verizon Communications. First, let's debunk a few erroneous assumptions about the settlement:

*We can blame this on the overly-aggressive ...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently held a meeting with "a battery of experts" on disparate treatment in hiring. According to the EEOC, hiring discrimination continues to run rampant.

Time for a grain of salt here: According to the EEOC's press release, most of the experts were from the EEOC, or were individuals who had been denied jobs and claimed they were ...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a public hearing this week on leave of absence as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This is a smokin' hot subject, particularly in light of the ADA Amendments Act and its regulations, which expand the ADA's coverage to a dramatically larger population, the "new," more activist EEOC under Chair ...

A few weeks ago, I posted my thoughts about how the expanded definition of "disability" under the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act will affect administration of the Family and Medical Leave Act. I promised to follow up with a post about the impact of the ADAAA on the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act "unless more pressing news intervene[d]."

As expected ...

Here are some "bad news" items from the employment law world:

Evil, money-grubbling lawyers (is that redundant?) who rip off their clients. Forbes has a disheartening article on "nine ways lawyers inflate their bills." Some of the alleged practices are astounding to even me, a lawyer: charging clients for use of conference rooms when the clients are meeting with the lawyers  ...

Plaintiff's lawyer Donna Ballman and The Evil HR Lady have had good posts recently on common employee misconceptions about employment law, including the "right" to see what is in one's personnel file and the "right" to take a break.*

*Depending on where the employee lives, he may have these rights, but in many states he does not. And the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not require ...

Whew - what a week! Try as I might, I could not think of a way to tie in the Royal Wedding and the release of President Obama's long-form birth certificate with employment law.

(But, aren't the bride and groom adorable? I love Kate's dress!)

(And, you know that birth certificate is a big fake. I'm kidding, I'M KIDDING!)

OK, enough of that -- back to work.

I actually have a serious topic ...

As most people in the Human Resources and employment-law worlds are aware, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued its final rule interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act.

The ADAAA, which took effect in January 2009, was enacted toward the end of the administration of George W. Bush, with the support of disability rights advocates ...