What are you grateful for this year? Here is my list.

Experts have estimated that it may cost as much as $180 billion to repair the damage done by Hurricane Harvey. With so much rebuilding to be done, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is temporarily waiving certain equal employment opportunity requirements to expedite Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The deputy director has the authority to waive any part of the EEO clause in a specific contract or group of contracts “when he deems that special circumstances in the national interest so require.”  (Scroll down to section (b)(1).)

On August 31, the Deputy Director of the OFCCP issued a memorandumtemporarily exempting contractors providing Hurricane Harvey relief assistance from developing written affirmative action programs. The exemption applies to the affirmative action programs required by Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Section 4212 of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. According to the memorandum, the EEO clauses in affected contracts may be modified to specify that “the contractor will not be obligated to develop the written affirmative action program required under the regulations implementing [EO11246, VEVRAA, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended].”

Although federal contractors providing Hurricane Harvey relief assistance will not have to develop written affirmative action programs, they will still be required to comply with other EEO requirements pertaining to record keeping, record retention, employment listings, and posting of the “Equal Opportunity is the Law” notice.

The affirmative action program exemption will last three months, but it may be extended “should special circumstances in the national interest so require.”

Our tax dollars at work.

In a recent lawsuit filed in federal court in Florida, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has asserted a claim of sex discrimination against a gentlemen’s club in Florida for allegedly refusing to hire a man who applied for a bartending position. According to the complaint, Sammy’s Gentlemen’s Club informed the male applicant that it “did ...

Reason No. 4: We have an all-star team of co-bloggers.

To wit (in alphabetical order): Ken Carlson, Cara Crotty, Louise Davies, Tommy Eden, LaLonnie Gray, Billy Hammel, Ellen Kearns, Damon Kitchen, Angelique Lyons, Bob Ortbals, Alyssa Peters, Kristine Sims, Sandra Sok, Jill Stricklin, Spring Taylor, Stephanie Underwood, Heidi Wilbur, and Jon Yarbrough. (Thanks, you guys!)

You ...

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

Game Over. Dunzo. Finito. Bye Felicia. These are things we can now officially say about the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Rule.

On Monday, President Trump signed a Congressional joint resolution of disapproval into law, officially invalidating the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Rule. Congress legislatively vetoed the Rule by using the Congressional Review Act, its new favorite tool ...

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted to permanently block implementation of the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Rule, also known as the contractor “Blacklisting Rule.” With a 236-187 vote, the joint resolution disapproving the Rule easily passed in the House and will now head to the Senate.

As we discussed earlier this week, Congress can use the Congressional Review Act ...

In good news for federal contractors, Congress has taken its first step toward permanently blocking implementation of the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Rule, also known as the contractor “Blacklisting” Rule.  As we have discussed previously, the Rule (which includes regulations and guidance implementing President Obama’s Executive Order 13673) requires ...

Thank you all very much for helping elect us to the American Bar Association Blawg 100 for 2016. We were one of only five employment law blogs to make the list, out of approximately 4,000 blogs in all legal categories. Your support and your readership are greatly appreciated!

We had a lot of guest bloggers this year, and they also deserve credit for our success. So thank you very much (in ...

Last chance! The deadline to comment on the Interim Rule that adds pay transparency language to government contracts is this coming Tuesday, November 29.

On September 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration issued an interim rule  called “Non-Retaliation for Disclosure of Compensation ...