Happy Labor Day Weekend, y’all!

The month of August was not kind to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC’s wellness regulations were shot down by a federal court in the District of Columbia, and earlier this week the agency was told that it could not require employers to report compensation data on the new EEO-1 Reports.

But the EEOC also scored a big ...

Our thoughts and prayers this holiday weekend go out to our friends and all the people of Texas and Louisiana who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey.

And our thanks to the heroic rescue personnel.

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by Texas National Guard.

NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is a client bulletin by Jim Coleman and Ellen Kearns, co-chairs of our Wage and Hour Practice Group, that went out this afternoon. Because the blog subscription and bulletin subscription lists are not identical, I’m reproducing the bulletin here for our blog readers.

UPDATE (9/5/17): As we expected, today the U.S. Department of Labor filed ...

Just in time for Labor Day . . . the new Executive Labor Summary is out! Our favorite labor 

commentator, David Phippen of our Washington DC-Metro Office, is his usual bad* self, with the latest of President Trump’s nominees and appointees to the National Labor Relations Board, a court’s “joint employer” decision that may indicate where the now-Republican Board will end up on this issue, the UAW defeat at Nissan in Mississippi, union-related scandals at the U.S. Postal Service and between Chrysler and the UAW, and — a pro-union vote at a chain of erotica shops in New York. (Leave it to David to make labor relations sexy.) Oh, and I almost forgot – a herd of goats taking union jobs in Michigan.

*By “bad,” I mean “awesome.”

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by Jelene Morris. 

I’m reading the decision as we speak, and we’ll be back soon with analysis from our Wage and Hour gurus, Jim 

Coleman and Ellen Kearns. But meanwhile, here is the Opinion and Order from U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant, and here is the Judgment.

The judge granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the business plaintiffs, a group led by the Plano (TX) Chamber of Commerce.

You may recall that Judge Mazzant’s preliminary injunction, issued last November, is on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by State Farm Insurance.

In New York, if you’re fired for being too cute, your boss may be guilty of gender discrimination.

In a case where it sounds like we are hearing only half of the story, a yoga and massage therapist claimed that her chiropractor boss and his wife (who was the COO of the practice) fired her solely because of the wife’s unjustified suspicions that the ...

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 College in Macon, Georgia.

In February 2016, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs filed an administrative complaint against B&H Foto, the largest non-chain photo and video equipment store in the United States. The Complaint alleged that B&H had discriminated against female, black, and Asian jobseekers by hiring only Hispanic men for entry-level positions.  The OFCCP also alleged that Hispanic employees were harassed, paid less than similarly situated workers, and denied promotions because of their ethnicity.

The agency and the company recently entered into a consent decree, in which B&H agreed to pay $3.22 million in back wages to more than 1,300 affected class members. The company has also agreed to hire a workplace consultant to address its employment practices and workplace conduct. In addition, the company must provide its managers with annual training on EEO principles and on workplace harassment.

By agreeing to the consent decree, the company did not admit any guilt or wrongdoing. The company released a statement denying all of the allegations, but recognizing that litigation would be costly and resolution would allow it to return to business “as usual” with the government.

NOTE FROM ROBIN: Last night, I posted briefly that the EEOC’s requirement, starting next March 31, that employers include compensation data in their annual EEO-1 reports had been suspended. We now have more information, and I have drafted a client bulletin that will go out this afternoon. Because the blog subscription and bulletin subscription lists are not identical, I’m ...

This just in, from Randel Johnson, Vice President of Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

Members of the Chamber’s Labor Relations and Employee Benefits Committees:

We have just learned that the deadline for compliance with the new EEO-1 form reporting requirement for data on hours and compensation will be stayed indefinitely. According to our sources, [the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget] based their decision on two grounds, one of which was the appeal submitted by the Chamber that highlighted the new form’s problems with cost, utility, and confidentiality. [The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] will be publishing further details about what actions they will be taking and any future deadlines and timelines in the Federal Register.

This is a victory, not just for the business community, but for common sense in the world of regulations and information collection. As you know, the Chamber was at the forefront throughout the development of the revised form in crafting arguments opposing EEOC’s gross overreach in expanding the existing EEO-1 form to unmanageable proportions without any discernable benefit. . . .

We will provide more details on this important development as they become available.

Hopefully you’ll find this good news as the summer comes to an end!

I was not a fan of this new EEO-1 reporting requirement, so I am happy as a clam.

(You've been warned.)

As I reported Tuesday, a federal judge has ruled that the wellness regulations issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are invalid. Judge John D. Bates of the District of Columbia did not vacate the rules but remanded them to the EEOC to address the rules' "failings." Now that I've had a chance to read the decision, I ...