SCRUTINY OF EMPLOYERS GROWS!

Several new and potentially dangerous unfriendly rulings create greater risk for employers than ever before.  New legal developments in employment law include:

• The EEOC has issued final regulations under the ADA Amendments Act to make it easier for an individual who may seek protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act to establish that he or she has a disability.

• A federal court has recently taken an employer to task for interference with an employee's FMLA rights by calling "too often" to check on the employee's return to work status and for pressuring the employee to shorten her FMLA leave.  In the case, the Court found that the employee's supervisor had "implied" that the employee should shorten her FMLA leave in order to protect her job.

• The National Labor Relations Board has taken an employer to task for assessing discipline in a case where an employee had, online, criticized the employer but had done so in a way that the Board found to be "concerted action" (the disciplined employee was not a member of a union).

Every day, employer actions are being evaluated by referees, judges, juries and administrative agencies.  If you have questions as to how to avoid legal action from employees, please contact John B. Bechtol or any of the other labor and employment group attorneys here at the Firm.