By September 30, 2019, employers with 100 or more employees are required to submit pay data for 2017 and 2018 to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  This submission is known as the Component 2 EEO-1 survey, and covered employers should have received both an email notification and a letter providing their UserID which is needed to access the online filing system for the EEO-1. Background Under the Obama administration, the EEOC proposed a series of…

Employers use numerous tools to screen applicants and determine which one may be the best for the job including job applications, interviews, reference checks and criminal background checks. Criminal background checks can be highly useful for employers, and can legitimately weed out applicants who are not suitable for the position. Nevertheless, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has taken an aggressive stance in limiting their use under discrimination law. A federal court, however, just delivered…

Employers have long disliked labor unions’ use of inflatable rats, large balloon cats, mock funerals and other types of dramatic protests mounted when a labor union wants to exert pressure on a company to cease doing business with the employer with whom the union has a dispute.  The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) expressly prohibits picketing a neutral employer in an effort to persuade that neutral employer to cease doing business with the employer with…

As discussed in a prior post , the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) continues to target certain employee work rules and policies, including employee handbook provisions, as running afoul of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  Although the current NLRB has reversed several previous NLRB decisions regarding handbook policies, the line between permissible policies and those found to interfere with and chill employee rights to engage in protected concerted activity remains blurry at best. In…

Earlier this month, we issued an article entitled, “Minnesota Enacts New Wage Theft Laws and Employee Notice Requirements.” Please click here to read the article. This article detailed sweeping new laws regarding wage theft, and requirements that employers provide employees detailed information regarding their employment at the commencement of their employment, as well as at the end of each payroll period. At the time the article was issued, it was unclear whether the new laws…