Pushed by the agency, employers appear to have folded early on, after mediation and conciliation and even before the EEOC actually concluded that they had discriminated.

• Employer do’s and don’ts. Which accommodations are required under the ADA, FMLA, PWFA and PUMP Act.
• Religion. It’s almost impossible to turn down a religious-accommodation request without objective, concrete evidence that making the accommodation will severely impact your bottom line.
• What is a religion anyway? You don’t have to honor them all. The trick is to know what doesn’t constitute a sincerely held religious belief.
• Failed accommodations. What to do when accommodations aren’t working and you’ve tried all reasonable options.
• PWFA and PUMP. These recent federal laws provide extensive pregnancy and postpartum workplace rights that you don’t want to get wrong.
• FMLA vs. ADA. Know the difference between FMLA leave for health issues and reasonable accommodations under the ADA.
• Essential job functions. See exactly what your job descriptions must say about “essential” and non-essential functions.
• Step-by-step interactive process. Find out exactly what you must do (and document) when an employee requests an accommodation.
• Accommodation resources. Discover resources for finding the best possible accommodation for your organization. (Tip: It doesn’t always have to be the one the employee prefers—with one crucial exception.)

The White House proposal highlights its priorities, especially when it comes to agencies under its jurisdiction that enforce federal wage-and-hour, labor-relations and employment-discrimination laws. Here’s who would get what and what cuts or increases may mean for employers/

An email error cost the company a cool $495,000—a big payday for someone who never put in an hour’s work for the company. The case is a reminder that HR needs to play an active role in training hiring managers and potential supervisors in the law.

What type of documentation can you require for a service animal? Also, what’s the difference between a service animal and an emotional-support animal, and what does that mean for approval?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s combined FY 2025 Agency Performance Report and FY 2027 Agency Performance Plan signals a clear shift in enforcement priorities under Chair Andrea Lucas.

High turnover and national walkouts to protest low pay and poor working conditions have hit the bottom line and made the company vulnerable to union organizing. Now, partly to boost retention and cut turnover and partly to prevent further unionization, the company has announced a series of improvements to pay.

It’s no secret that state and local legislatures are busy filling in the blanks left by Congress when it comes to offering employees time off from work. States, for example, have stepped in to offer paid time off for common worker needs like family illness, bereavement and expanding families. Those state laws largely fill in the hole that the Family and Medical Leave Act’s unpaid leave provisions created.

Many companies are incorporating AI into their employment decision-making, especially in hiring. For organizations that receive hundreds or even thousands of applicants per role, AI tools promise efficiency: faster résumé screening, automated candidate ranking and data-driven recommendations. But efficiency does not eliminate legal risk. In some cases, it redistributes it.

The Department of Labor has proposed regulations on joint employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Introducing the regs, Andrew Rodgers, the Wage and Hour Division administrator, said they present a workable distillation of court opinions and the DOL’s interpretation of the law.