Accessibility Tools

Skip to main content

October 2020

toy cars with lyft and uber
Uber and Lyft threatened to suspend their passenger operations in California in late August over a new California law that requires companies to treat workers as employees rather than independent contractors if they contribute to the usual course of business.  Uber and Lyft, both based in California, who have large operations in that state, argue tha...
wooden restrooms sign
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has joined the Eleventh Circuit in ruling that prohibiting a transgender student's ability to use bathrooms that match his gender identity violate Title IX and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.  Grimm v. Gloucester Cty. Sch. Bd., No. 19-01952 (4th Cir., 8/26/20).  The U.S. Supreme Cour...
person kneeling outside with a yellow smoke stick
The controversial subject of professional football players "taking a knee" during the National Anthem has now expanded to the workplace.  In a recent case, an employer was confronted with an African-American employee protesting his employer's alleged racial mistreatment by taking a knee during a meeting.  A supervisor asked the plaintiff to step...
haiti
A decision from a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will end protection for about 300,000 persons who have been living in the U.S. with a Temporary Protected Status (TPS), as to immigrants from Haiti, Sudan, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.  Ramos et al. v. Wolf et al., No. 18-16981 (C.A. 9, 9/14/20). 
washington dc congress building at night
In the absence of a Congressional compromise on additional pandemic federal funding, in August President Trump extended an extra $300.00 per week from the federal government to most unemployment compensation recipients, but the funding has now run out and will not extend beyond the week that ended September 5, 2020.  The Administration is supposedly ...
now hiring sign outside by grass lawn
Almost every employer of substantial size deals with contractors of some type, with the most common application being temporary staffing, janitorial services, franchisee-franchisor arrangements, and others.  Under the Department of Labor (DOL) enforcement guidance during the Obama Administration, the guidance expanded the application of the "joint em...
coronavirus letters over a black background
Some reports indicate that employees have filed almost 600 COVID-19-related lawsuits against their employers.  As a result, about a dozen states, including Georgia, have passed laws attempting to provide some liability protection from COVID-19 liability.  Georgia's law provides that an employer or other business entities may post a warning at it...