The new year is off and running, but it’s not too late for human resources professionals to make a few employment law-related resolutions that should make their lives easier in 2012.
Sexual harassment policies
Boyd Byers a partner with Foulston Siefkin LLP in Wichita, Kansas, says attention to sexual harassment policies should top the list of resolutions [...]

Drugs, alcohol, and employment generally don’t mix well. Employers face tricky choices when creating policies that address workplace substance use and abuse while still ensuring they stay within the bounds of state and federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Employers must decide whether to require drug testing and then craft policies that [...]

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is trying to buck a trend. While government budget cuts have become the norm, the EEOC is requesting for fiscal year 2012 an $18 million increase from 2011. The agency says it needs more money to restore enforcement and legal staff positions, modernize technology, and expand training, among other [...]

The law that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed in September 2008, and although more than three years would seem sufficient to digest the change a new law brings, the regulations for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) weren’t effective until May 24, 2011. So HR professionals and attorneys alike in many cases [...]

When the economy declines, it’s a safe bet that the number of discrimination claims filed against employers will increase. And as we are currently in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, employment law attorneys weren’t surprised when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported this week that it received an unprecedented number of [...]

by Jonathan R. Mook
Even though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) hasn’t issued final regulations on the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) yet, you still must comply with the ADAAA, which took effect at the beginning of last year. In this article, we’re addressing the defense of claims under the new Americans with Disabilities Act [...]

What is the biggest employment law challenge employers have been facing thus far in 2010? An easy answer might be health care reform since companies have indeed started wrestling with whether to grandfather their benefits plans or strike off in a new direction under new sets of rules and regulations.
But for many employment law attorneys [...]

Earlier this week, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed a major milestone when it turned 20 years old. Like most 20-year-olds, it (1) didn’t get this far without some growing pains and (2) still has a ways to go before reaching full maturity. Let’s take a look back at where the law began, how [...]

The 2008 ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), which went into effect on January 1, 2009, greatly expanded the number of medical conditions that likely will be recognized as disabilities under the law. More disabilities mean more accommodation requests and more opportunities for employers to be second-guessed by the government and the courts on how they respond [...]

Nearly two years after Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced recently that employers should not expect to see new regulations providing a more detailed explanation of the law’s requirements anytime soon.
To understand the reasons for the delay and how it may affect employers, we spoke with nationally [...]