"The Justice in the bow tie."

Walter Olson of the great Overlawyered.com sent a challenge over Twitter earlier this week:

For those of you who don't know Mr. Olson, he's a libertarian.  :-)

I have to admit, I needed time to process this! I complain about these laws all the time, but would I really want to get rid of all protections for employees who want to organize, be paid a fair wage, avoid being thrown out on the street ...

Or is it loved as much as ever, as long as it doesn't cost employees money?

Interesting questions are raised by a study conducted and recently published by Alexandre Mas, a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at at Princeton University, and Amanda Pallais, a Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy and Social Studies at Harvard University.

The professors conducted a ...

Employers, when was the last time you had a real makeover? Let's do one now!

The new white-collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act will go into effect December 1, but it's a good idea for employers to prepare now because there are a lot of changes that will have to be made, communicated, and taught to employees before then.

The salary threshold for most white-collar ...

Who's been naughty and who's been nice in labor and employment law? Here are my picks for 2015. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

NAUGHTY!

The National Labor Relations Board, for being naughty in too many ways to mention. Its rules on employer handbook policies, including confidentiality and social media, are unrealistic and almost impossible for employers to legally follow ...

Last week I heard David Lopez, General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, speak about EEOC litigation developments at the annual North Carolina/South Carolina Labor and Employment Law conference.

The EEOC has been litigating like a house afire, so I knew you would want to hear what he had to say. Mr. Lopez - who reads this blog and likes it! - gave me permission to ...

Law 360 reports this morning that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has agreed to rehear the EEOC v. Ford Motor Co. case, which I reported on (and disagreed with) in April. The original decision, holding that Ford should have allowed an employee with severe and unpredictable irritable bowel syndrome to telecommute as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with ...

You all know that I love telecommuting, although it works better in some instances than in others.

Before any employer starts a telecommuting program, it should ask itself three questions:

1) Does the job lend itself to a telecommuting arrangement? (You can't very well assemble Cadillac Escalades from your home office, now can you?)

2) Is the employee's home worksite conducive to work ...

Thanks very much to Colin O'Keefe of LXBN-TV for interviewing me yesterday on the EEOC v. Ford Motor Company case that I posted about last Friday. This is the case in which a panel of the Sixth Circuit said that Ford had to offer telecommuting to an employee as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I was not quite on board with the court's decision ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has come out with a decision interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act that pretty much confirms all of our worst fears about the scope of that new law.

And I think the Court's legal analysis was 100 percent correct.

Sorry, employers, but the Fourth Circuit nailed it.

The Fourth Circuit hears appeals from federal ...