Robin Shea at Employment and Labor Insider had a great post a couple of days ago on common misconceptions about employment laws that trip up employers.
It is surprising how often employers think the law allows freedom to act without risk of bad consequences when precisely the opposite is true. I call them “employment law myths”.
In a unanimous decision yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the universe of employees who might be protected from retaliation under Title VII and other federal 
employment laws.
A retaliation claim is based upon an employer’s adverse action taken in response to an employee’s “protected activity”. Typically, protected activity includes things such as making a complaint
An Article in Sunday’s Des Moines Register pointed to an increase in the hiring of temps as an early sign of economic recovery. One of the benefits to employers of temporary workers, the article noted, is that they provide a company with flexibility when market conditions are uncertain. “Companies feel more comfortable using temporary work forces”
A federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently waded into this thorny subject. The case is Burlington v. News Corp., in which a white television reporter for the Fox affiliate in Philadelphia alleges he was terminated for using the “n-word”. The suit claims black employees who also had uttered the word were not even disciplined.
It all
One of the best ways to predict this year’s trends in discrimination litigation is to examine last year’s charge statistics from the EEOC and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Any person who claims a violation of the state or federal anti-discrimination laws must first file an administrative charge with one or the other of these agencies.
On the Friday before Thanksgiving, Vice-President Biden announced at a Middle Class Task Force event the creation of a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Labor and the American Bar Association. According to the press release associated with the event, the purpose the collaboration is to “help workers resolve complaints received by DOL’s wage
Last week a mother quit her job soon after returning from maternity leave because she claims her employer denied her access to a lactation room for three days (See Des Moines Register story here). Apparently, the employer had a lactation room on the premises as required by federal law. But, according to a complaint filed
Several commentators have identified the proliferation of social networking as one of most important new developments/challenges/obstacles that employers faced in 2009, and will 
continue to deal with in the foreseeable future.
Despite all the discussion in blogs and other places about this phenomenon, for those who do not spend lots of time in this arena, there is not
It seems common sense that a lawyer or witness would not answer a ringing cell phone in the middle of a court proceeding, but it happens enough that judges now have to have rules about it.
Molly DiBianca at Delaware Employment Law Blog takes on the entitlement mentality of some employees who think they should be
Update-January 6, 2010: For information on how employee handbooks, and particularly safety plans, can contribute to lower insurance costs, see Lara Utter’s recent post in Iowa Biz.
There is no federal or Iowa law that requires an employer to have a handbook–but most of us do anyway. While handbooks can be quite useful for communicating information