In honor of Memorial Day weekend, here's a summary of the rights of employees who take leaves of absence to serve our country, and their family members.

USERRA

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 protects employees who leave their jobs to serve in various military capacities.

Five year (or more) rule. An employee's right of reemployment is good for at ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission came out this week with a fact sheet dealing with leaves of absence and the Americans with Disabilities Act. First, I say kudos to the EEOC for again providing good, readable, not-overly-technical "preventive" guidance for employers. Second, let's see what you know about the EEOC's position on leaves and the ADA. (Answers are at the ...

The U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, has issued a new guide for employers on the Family and Medical Leave Act. I've only thumbed through it, but it seems to be pretty nicely done, and has some cute comics about the FMLA request/approval process.

(Seems like Will and Brenda could be a little friendlier, though.)

Here it is.

UPDATE (4/29/16): Here is the new FMLA poster

Dear Americans with Disabilities Act,

How time flies -- you're already 25 years old! I have seen many lovely tributes to you this week, and a couple of my favorites are here and here. I hope you don't mind one more from me.

When President George H.W. Bush signed you into law in 1990, I had been practicing employment law for less than two years, so I feel like you and I grew up together.

I ...

It's been a hectic week for me (I have a trial coming up), and so here are some links to employment law blog posts and workplace news items that I hope will entertain and edify.

5 Things Your Manager Doesn't Want You to Know. By the great Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas. (Just to whet your appetite, the first is "I can't fire you.")

Can Employee Display a ...

Maybe not that much, depending on where you are and how "proactive" you've already been before now.

Seriously, I don't think Friday's Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges will be that big a deal for most employers. The Supreme Court already decided in 2013 that the federal definition of "spouse" included same-sex spouses (assuming the marriage was legally valid where ...

The new rule defining "spouse" for purposes of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act was set to take effect today. But a federal judge in Texas yesterday temporarily blocked the rule from going into effect after attorneys general in several states that do not recognize same-sex marriage challenged it.

The plaintiffs were the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Nebraska ...

(St. Patrick's Day is sooooo nine hours ago!)

Ever looking to the future, we celebrate the coming April Fools' Day with this month's greatest employment law blog posts. Some of my summaries are accurate, and others are "fools' editions" - you'll have to read the actual posts to know which is which. There are so many excellent posts that I'm listing them in alphabetical order by ...

Where are we these days with respect to mind-altering substances and the workplace? Here's the latest, with the "substances" discussed in alphabetical order. This blog post is guaranteed accurate™ for at least the next five minutes.

ALCOHOL. Alcohol is legal, which means that it is generally recognized as the most abused of substances. Employers can prohibit its use in the ...

The U.S. Department of Labor announced today its Final Rule changing the definition of "spouse" in the Family and Medical Leave Act to include most same-sex married couples. I blogged about the proposed rule in June, and the Final Rule is the same for the most part.

The changes reflect (and expand upon) last year's Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor. That decision ...