News

A recent 11th Circuit decision is a good reminder that repeated remarks from leadership about wanting “younger” workers can become powerful evidence of discrimination. Even when an employer points to other reasons for its decisions, a jury may not buy them if the paper trail does not line up.

The Supreme Court has started the 2025–2026 term, and it looks to be an interesting one for employers. Here’s a breakdown of pending cases and issues.

Two Department of Labor opinion letters—one from 2023 and one issued in October 2025—clarify how to calculate how many hours of FMLA leave an employee is eligible for.

At the 2025 HR Specialist Summit, Carrie Hoffman, labor and employment partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, reminded attendees that the Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t grant employers much leeway. Exemptions are narrowly construed, the burden of proof is on the company and even small oversights can snowball into class claims.

The EEOC had been unable to vote on substantial policy changes since January, when President Donald Trump terminated two Democratic commissioners before their terms were set to expire.

The E-Verify system, temporarily unavailable during the first week of the government shutdown, resumed operations on October 9. U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services offered guidelines for employers on handling new hires who came on when the service was offline.

According to the Department of Justice, employers must allow remote work as a religious accommodation even if they have switched back to a full in-office schedule or never allowed remote work at all. That’s the gist of the DOJ’s Sept. 18 internal guidance for federal agencies that are supposed to be bringing all federal workers back to the office.

The Protect Older Job Applicants Act is aimed at providing older applicants with stronger protections in hiring than currently exist under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Effective Sept. 30, the EEOC has closed its processing of cases where the basis for the complaint is an allegation that an employer’s practices or policies have a disparate impact on members of a protected class. These are cases where the employer isn’t accused of intentional discrimination, but the policy or practice impacts a protected class more than it impacts other applicants or employers.

With the government shutdown that began at midnight Oct. 1, some services may be temporarily unavailable. That includes the use of the E-Verify system for employers that participate. However, that does not mean employers can have new employees start work without gathering necessary documentation to verify that the new employee is legally authorized to work in the U.S.