Let Us Pray: The Challenges of Accommodating Muslim Prayer in the Workplace
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- - EEOCSome prayers go unheard; others go to the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission. Recently, employers in three states have faced actions from Muslim employees demanding increased accommodation for prayer in the workplace. In May, an employer in Minnesota refused to schedule prayer breaks requested... ›
When One Person's Scent Is Another Person's Disability
A California jury recently awarded a $3.3 million verdict to a California Department of Transportation (“CALTRANS”) employee who alleged a variety of disability-related claims involving CALTRANS’s failure to properly accommodate his allergy to certain scents and his supervisor’s and co-workers’ retaliatory actions in light... ›“On The Seventh Day He (She) Rested” . . . Maybe
It took 124 years, but the California Supreme Court in Mendoza v. Nordstrom, Inc., No. S224611, 2017 WL 1833143 (Cal. May 8, 2017) finally addressed in detail California’s day-of-rest statutes (Labor Code Sections 551, et seq.) originally enacted in 1893. Such a seemingly simple... ›San Jose Thinks It Knows The Way
The Economic Policy Institute has reported that, in 2016, as many as 4 million workers nationwide wanted but were unable to obtain full-time work. While some have debated these numbers, the City of San Jose, California, has attempted to tackle the issue with a... ›The Don(ald) Of A New Era: Are Workplace Immigration Raids On The Horizon?
The Place: A car wash in Los Angeles The Time: The 1970s The Scene: A busy afternoon at the car wash. Immigration agents burst onto the property in search of undocumented workers. The cashier—wife of the manager— yells frantically into the public address mic,... ›The Movement For Equal Pay In The Workplace: Progressive State Laws Carry The Torch
Although strides have been made over the past few decades to achieve pay equity for women and other protected classes of individuals, the facts (and the sentiment expressed in the above quote) make clear that there is still a ways to go. Indeed, new... ›The Cost Of Keeping Things Quiet: Crackdown On Confidentiality Clauses Calls For Explicit Carve-Outs
In last February’s Employment Law Commentary , we discussed best practices for drafting separation agreements. Among the issues raised was a recent SEC enforcement action applying one of the Commission’s rules in a novel way to clamp down on contracts seen as chilling whistleblowing... ›