Michigan Labor & Employment Law Blog
Since inauguration day, President Biden has issued a flurry of executive orders (EO), which do not create new laws but do direct executive branch actions within existing laws. Among the executive orders signed by the President include ones meant to address racial and gender inequities in the workplace that employers should be aware of.
Whenever there is a change in federal administrations, employers must be aware of how various employment laws, rules and regulations will ​change. One hot topic in employment law, which has seen significant change in recent years, is religious discrimination and accommodation of religious beliefs in the workplace.
On March 9, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, known as the PRO Act, with a largely party line vote of 225-206.
The bill’s passage in the U.S. House is a victory for labor unions, as it includes sweeping changes to federal labor laws that would significantly impact employers and empower unions. The legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate, where stiffer opposition to passage is expected.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, state agencies responsible for protecting public health and worker safety have imposed a general legal obligation on most employers to require that employees who can feasibly work remotely do so. This article will review that general obligation and discuss best practices for employers.
Can an employee in Michigan secretly record a conversation they are involved in without consent of other people involved in the conversation? It has long been assumed, based on precedent from the Michigan Court of Appeals, that such recordings are legal, and therefore that Michigan is a “one party consent” state. However, that issue may soon be settled in a more definitive fashion by the Michigan Supreme Court.
As the fall nears, the school year is about to kick off. While employees juggling work and school obligations can always present an issue, this year could prove to be a little more complicated than usual. Although some schools are preparing to go back to school in-person, others are utilizing a variety of modified schedules, or going totally remote. Even those schools going back in-person will inevitably be faced with children who have COVID-19 or at the least, symptoms as we move into flu season.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a July 8, 2020 decision, upheld the validity of religious and moral exemptions for employers from requirements that contraceptive coverage be included under employer provided health insurance pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“Affordable Care Act”).
In a significant ruling that has major implications for employers and employees, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, held that the federal prohibition on discrimination “because of sex” found in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
See more from the June 2020 issue of Labor & Employment Law News.
Conducting a workplace investigation is a challenging and risk-filled endeavor for all employers. It is imperative that businesses move quickly and decisively to investigate allegations of wrongdoing because public and private companies are coming under greater scrutiny from the federal, state, and local governments and regulatory bodies, and are increasingly in the crosshairs of plaintiffs’ attorneys bringing lawsuits and calling their practices into question.
Part One of this series dealt with the scenarios of what warrants an investigation and why employers should conduct workplace investigations. Part Two discusses what to do when a complaint has been filed and what actions should be taken following an investigation.
See more from the June 2020 issue of Labor & Employment Law News.
In the past, background checks on prospective employees were done as a matter of course by employers. The only real risk employers faced was missing a red flag in a candidate’s background, resulting in a poor hiring decision. However, in the wake of new legislation, employers must take great care to avoid liability while filtering out information about their job candidates during the hiring process. In Part One of this series, we discussed the ins and outs of conducting both Criminal and Fair Credit Reporting Background Checks. This article discusses social media background checks, medical examinations/drug testing and background check best practices.
