US Supreme Court Issues New Guidelines on Religious Accommodation at Work

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Abercrombie & Fitch may have discriminated against a job applicant when it rejected the applicant because she wore a hijab (a Muslim head scarf) during her interview.  At the time, Abercrombie had a dress code that prohibited employees from wearing hats or other head […]

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Security Screening Wage and Hour Case

On October 8, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on a wage and hour case filed by employees of a warehouse business.  The business provides storage facilities and order-filling staff for companies that include Amazon.  Employees are required to stand in line and undergo a security screening after completing their work shifts and […]

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Recess Appointments to NLRB

Those who have followed the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) over the past few years may be aware that there was a period of time when the majority of the 5-member Board consisted of “recess appointments” by President Obama.  In other words, because Washington gridlock resulted in the President being unable to obtain Senate approval […]

EEOC and US Department of Labor Shutter Their Doors

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Labor have both announced that virtually all of their functions have temporarily ceased, pending adoption of a budget for FY 2014 by the federal government.  Although the EEOC will allow claims to be filed so as to protect claimants from missing filing deadlines, no claims will […]

Federal Court Confirms Unpaid Internships Are Illegal

In a ruling last week, a federal judge in New York confirmed what has long been predicted on this website (see here and here):  that unpaid internships that are not provided for educational course credit, and that are not otherwise designed primarily to benefit the intern, are illegal.  Thus, production assistants who worked as unpaid […]

EEOC Sues Over Criminal Background Checks

In a previous post here, I noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or  EEOC, had begun to focus on criminal background checks by employers.  The thinking is that requiring criminal background checks can constitute illegal discrimination on the basis of race because a higher percentage of African Americans than Caucasians have criminal convictions.  Thus, […]