The U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Steel have settled their OSHA retaliation lawsuit over the suspension of two employees who failed to comply with the company's "Immediate Reporting Policy," which required employees to report workplace injuries and illnesses . . . immediately. That's nice, but it's even nicer that the settlement, which is publicly available, includes a new ...

Is a former employee stealing your data so that he can start competing with you? Can he get around his obligations by borrowing a password, or by having his partners in crime do it? You may have a friend in the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Billy Hammel of our Dallas Office and Susan Bassford Wilson of our St. Louis Office have a good breakdown of the recent decision in United States ...

A number of employers and employer groups -- including the National Association of Manufacturers and Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. -- filed suit last week in a federal court in Texas seeking to block parts of the new OSHA rule set to take effect in August.

UPDATE (7/14/16): OSHA has announced that it is going to delay enforcement of the anti-retaliation provisions of its ...

Well, maybe not light reading, but good reading about good news that you won't want to miss! Here are our bulletins and other publications from the last week, in case you missed them:

*Heather Owen is already shooting off Fourth of July fireworks at the FOCUS women's leadership blog because our firm was named this week by the National Law Journal as the fourth best law firm in the ...

"Do this, don't do that, can't you read the rules . . ."*

Of course, the mega-topic this week was the U.S. Department of Labor's Final Rule on white-collar exemptions to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Ellen Kearns, co-chair of our Wage and Hour Practice Group, wrote a great Client Bulletin on the Rule, taking a complex subject and explaining it in a pithy and ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has published a new Fact Sheet on LGBT discrimination that employers will find helpful. As I've reported before here and here, the agency is taking an aggressive position regarding coverage of LGBT issues under Title VII's sex discrimination provisions. The EEOC's fact sheet, as well as other materials linked in it, should answer most ...

Big news for employees and employers in North Carolina -- the General Assembly enacted a bill on Wednesday (signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) within hours) that was primarily intended to preempt a certain high-profile municipal "bathroom" ordinance. (More on that in a sec.) But included in the bill is a provision that eliminates the wrongful discharge/public policy cause of ...

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 ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is the third and final installment of David Smith's series on the latest developments from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (But we hope he'll be back soon!)

In August, OSHA issued a revised version of its 2006 Directive on the Agency’s National Emphasis Program on Amputations that includes an updated list of 80 industries ...

NOTE FROM ROBIN: This is the second in a series by David Smith of our Occupational Safety and Health Practice Group on some of the latest developments from the agency. 

Last week, I posted about OSHA's expected final rule on a public database of workplace injuries and illnesses. While that expected rule would require employers to submit their injury and illness records to ...