Earlier today, the U.S. withdrew the last troops stationed in Afghanistan, bringing a close to a 20 year war there.
The war has had a substantial impact in America’s workplaces over the years. For example, back in 2008, after years of inaction, Congress passed a sweeping expansion of the federal FMLA law to provide for
I’d much rather write about a legal topic than a personal one, but before I talk about the logistics of handling an employee who has exhausted their paid time off, I wanted to share a brief personal update.
Last November, I shared with you my wife’s diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Because she is
Last week, we talked about an employer’s obligations when it comes to an employee who has cancer. But what about an employee’s spouse? Does the employer have any legal obligations there?
Let’s start first with a story:
Jake and his supervisor, Alex, have had a great working relationship but lately, things seems to have changed. At least that’s how Jake sees is after he told Alex that his wife is suffering from a long-term disability — cancer.
Although Jake has been a good performer for years, Alex has recently expressed his concern that Jake will not be able to satisfy the demands of the job due to the need to care for his wife. Alex begins to set unrealistic deadlines for projects for Jake and even yells at Jake in front of co-workers about the need to meet the deadlines.
Alex also began requiring Jake to meet company policies that have never been strictly followed, such as giving 2 weeks advance notice of leave. Now, Alex has removed Jake from team projects because Jake’s co-workers don’t think Jake can be counted on to complete his share of work “considering all of his wife’s medical problems.
Jake is frustrated. He’s complained to management but to no avail. Now what?
At first glance, you might think this is a FMLA issue; taking time off for a family member’s serious health condition is one of the key points of the FMLA. But a deeper look shows that’s not really what’s going on. This doesn’t have to do with leave.
Instead, it seems that the supervisor is treating an employee differently because of his relationship with someone who has a disability. The question is — is there a legal claim?
According the EEOC, there is.
Indeed, given this above scenario, the EEOC concluded in Q&A release that “the employer is liable for harassment on the basis of [Jake’s] association with an individual with a disability.” In other words, the employee may have a claim under the ADA.Continue Reading The “Association” Game: How a Spouse’s Cancer May be Covered by the ADA
Today, our firm held the last of two free seminars on employment law. Thanks to all who attended.
Surprisingly, one of the issues our attendees had a bunch of questions on was the new medical marijuana bill that became effective October 1, 2012.
Now, I’m not going to go back over the entire bill in
There’s no doubt that over the last couple of years, technology has been a huge driver of changes in the workplace. We’re now beginning to see lots of presentations and seminars discussing those changes and the interplay that such changes is having on the law.
Here are some of the upcoming conferences and meetings I’ll
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to the Fairfield County Bar Association on the burgeoning field of Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD, for short). It is also known at times as Caregiver Discrimination.
In essence, it is a cross-disciplinary practice that 
looks as various statutes like Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, FMLA, ADA and
Late last week, the Connecticut Senate approved a measure that would permit an employee to take up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave from work to care for family members who may have been injured in the line of military dut
y. The bill (Senate Bill 710) is now on the House’s calendar for a
The EEOC issued new technical guidance for employers this week to provide them with some direction on how to deal with workers with caregi
ving responsibilities.
The document, "Employer Best Practices for Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities," is available online here supplements previous guidance entitled "Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities".
As
Continuing my series of posts on the new FMLA regulations (parts one and two can be found here), today I’ll address a big chunk 
of what the new regulations cover – Military Family Leave.
You may recall from a post earlier this year that Congress passed a new law that extended FMLA leave to military families in certain situations.