April 2023 E-Update

Click here to view entire E-Update as a PDF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS What the End of the COVID-19 National Emergency Means for Employers President Biden has signed legislation that ends the COVID-19 national emergency. Separately, the public health emergency that was declared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services […]

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, employers that use a third-party provider to conduct a consumer report or investigative consumer report (i.e. background check) are required to provide notices and communications to the applicant/employee. This includes a notice published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), “A Summary of Your […]

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs released its annual update of the hiring benchmark for protected veterans – 5.4%, effective March 31, 2023, based on recently-released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Under revised Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act regulations issued in 2014, covered government (sub)contractors must […]

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires certain employers to give 60 days’ written notice of mass layoffs and plant closings to impacted employees. A recent case reminds employers that if the original separation date is delayed, an updated WARN notice must be provided. The WARN Act requires […]

Employers sometimes assert that an employee is “not a good fit” for the company. Such vague terminology may be problematic when the employee claims that their termination was actually because of illegal discrimination or harassment. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld an employer’s “not a […]

In order to assert a discrimination claim under Title VII, an employee must show, among other things, that they suffered some “adverse employment action.” Courts have traditionally interpreted that to mean some “ultimate employment decision” (such as a lack of promotion or a termination), but several recent decisions from various […]

An employer cannot automatically escape liability under federal anti-discrimination laws, including Title VII or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, by dividing up an employee’s duties among others, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In order to assert a claim of discrimination under the ADEA […]

A recent case illustrates the point that employers can “test drive” a religious (or medical) accommodation to see if it is, in fact, feasible or whether it poses an undue hardship. In Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corp., a teacher objected on religious grounds to calling transgendered students by their […]

The heads of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division joined together to issue a statement on their enforcement efforts against discrimination and bias in the use of automated systems or artificial intelligence (AI) in the […]