Real Life Employment Law
Nearly every day, executives and managers, and the in-house counsel and Human Resources professionals who work with them, are confronted with unanticipated questions regarding the workforce. Just when they think they have "seen it all," along comes a new and often stranger scenario involving an odd twist to an area they thought they fully understood. These individuals often find themselves back at square one when trying to construct an appropriate response and devise a creative solution to the problem presented. Sometimes these "Quirky Questions" can be resolved easily; other times, they implicate practical and legal issues that are not immediately apparent.
This Quirky Employment Questions Blog addresses unanticipated questions regarding the workforce.
We encourage you to submit your thoughts and reactions to the questions presented. We also encourage you to submit questions that you would like to see addressed, subject to these guidelines.
Stephen D. Bell
Michael Droke
Joseph W. Hammell
Sarah Andrews Herman
Ryan E. Mick
William J. Miller
Melissa Raphan
Gregory M. Saylin
Gabrielle Wirth
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Question: There has been a lot of news coverage lately on restroom policies related to transgender employees. Can you provide some guidance on how to structure our restroom-use policies to be both lawful and respectful of all employees? More generally, can you help me understand the appropriate, respectful terminology in this area? I certainly don’t want to offend anyone on purpose,...
Question: Over the summer, we heard a lot about new guidance on pregnancy discrimination. What do we need to know to ensure we are complying with local, state, and federal laws on pregnancy discrimination?
Question: Have there been any recent changes in the rules governing federal contractors?
Question: I’ve heard a lot about the recent Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) decisions lately. Are there any practical implications on employers or employees of the DOMA cases?
Question: A long-time employee has informed us of his decision to undergo a sex change. We are concerned about the reactions of co-workers and aren’t clear if we should be doing anything in response. As an employer, are we required to take any actions?
Walmart v. Dukes, No Glue in Aisle 23 The most sweeping putative employment-discrimination class action in history was not too big to fail. The United States Supreme Court has rejected an effort by three female employees of Wal-Mart to represent a class of some 1.6 million women who had been employed by the company at its 3,400 stores nationwide at...
Question: Our company has a sexual harassment policy. The policy makes clear that an employee who feels as though he or she has been harassed should report the problematic conduct to our Director of Human Resources. The policy also provides that, if more convenient, or for any other reason, the employee also can report the harassing behaviors to anyone else...
Quirky Question # 149: A female employee of our company filed a Charge with the EEOC that she has been discriminated against because one of our executives is involved in a relationship with a subordinate female employee. Our employee argues that this person is receiving preferential treatment and that she is being deprived of opportunities as a result. She claims...
Quirky Question #145 I know you’ve written about the issue of terminating family members in other Blog posts. And I know you recently discussed the nuances of terminating a family member in a closely held company. We have a more vanilla issue. Can we terminate a spouse of another employee we are terminating? We just don’t think it would be...
Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act On May 21, 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, also referred to as GINA, was signed into law. GINA includes two titles providing individuals with federal protections against genetic discrimination in health insurance and employment. Title I addresses the use of genetic information in health insurance and provides that health...
Erica ChenErica is an associate in the Costa Mesa office of Dorsey & Whitney and a member of the firm’s Labor and Employ...
Jack SullivanJack is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employment group, where he focuses his practice on employment adv...
Ieva AubinAs an employment and business immigration attorney, ...
Michael DrokeMike started his career as a client, not a lawyer...
Matt DurhamMatt defends employers in Utah and throughout the ...
Aaron GoldsteinAaron is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Josh HughesJosh’s experience spans trial and appellate advoc...
Jillian KornblattJillian is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor & Employ...
Laura LestradeLaura began practicing at Dorsey in 1992 and has s...
Ryan MickFor more than a decade, Ryan has counseled corpo...
Nick PappasNick litigates and counsels with respect to com...
Melissa RaphanMelissa is a Partner in Dorsey’s Labor and Employ...
Gabrielle WirthEmployers turn to Gabrielle for guidance on how they...
