Compliance Stuff

We’ve all heard the horror stories. A job seeker spends hours tailoring his resume, finally hits “submit,” and within seconds receives a rejection email in his inbox. Clearly, no human could have actually reviewed the resume. The applicant wasn’t rejected by a person; he was rejected by a pattern-matching algorithm. The “ No Robot Bosses Act ” could curtail these scenarios. The bill has bipartisan support in Congress, having been co-sponsored by Democrats Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and Christopher Deluzio of Pennsylvania, and the Republican Delegate from Guam, James Moylan. The core premise of the proposed No Robot Bosses Act?  Employers would be prohibited from relying exclusively on automated decision systems to make employment-related decisions , including whether to hire or fire. Under the proposed law, an “automated decision system” is defined broadly as follows: a system, software, or process that . . . uses computation, in whole or in part, to determine outcomes, make or aid...

Among the first questions I ask when investigating a lawsuit accusing my client of discriminatory conduct is, “Who made the decision?” The reasons are simple. First, an adverse employment action – like termination, demotion, or failure to hire – doesn’t just happen. A person makes the decision. Second, claims of employment discrimination turn on that person’s motivations. Did the person take the adverse action because of the plaintiff’s protected characteristic ? Did that characteristic play a part in the decision? Winning or losing often comes down to how well the decisionmaker can explain the reasons for an adverse action and show that they were not a pretext for discrimination. When I have been lucky enough to be involved in the decision-making process, I counsel the employer on the importance of having a decisionmaker who will take ownership and, if necessary, be able to explain it credibly and convincingly to a jury. It’s one thing for several managers to agree that an employee ne...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today that Temporary Protected Status for  Honduras  and  Nicaragua  will terminate on September 8. The announcements come only one week after the DHS announced that  TPS status for Haiti would end on September 2 . For both Honduras and Nicaragua, the announcements indicate that employment authorization is automatically extended during the 60-day transition period. Honduras Honduran TPS beneficiaries can show their eligibility for the automatic extension with Employment Authorization Document cards that have category codes of A-12 or C-19, plus one of the following card expiration dates: January 5, 2018 July 5, 2018 January 5, 2020 January 4, 2021 October 4, 2021 December 31, 2022 June 30, 2024 July 5, 2025 Nicaragua Nicaraguan TPS beneficiaries can show their eligibility for the automatic extension with EAD cards that have category codes of A-12 or C-19, plus one of the following card expiration dates: January...

They’ve all but shut the door, turned off the lights, and put up the “closed” sign.  On July 2, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer  lifted the pause  on investigations and enforcement of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. Now that the pause is lifted, the OFCCP has announced that it will close all pending compliance evaluations. Background Days after  President Trump rescinded Executive Order 11246  in January, Vincent Micone, then-Acting Secretary of Labor,  ordered the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to cease its enforcement activity  related to Section 503 and VEVRAA. The OFCCP then notified contractors who had open compliance evaluations that the portions relating to Executive Order 11246 were closed and that the components subject to Section 503 and VEVRAA were on hold pending further guidance. Secretary’s Order 08-2025 Secretary Chavez-DeRemer’s Order 08-2025 lifts t...

"Reverse discrimination," ADA, religion, and nationwide injunctions. The 2024-25 term of the U.S. Supreme Court is over. Two decisions at the end of the term directly addressed employment law issues, and two others will have an indirect impact on employers. Here is what you need to know: No. 1: Expect more “reverse discrimination” claims.  In  Ames v. Ohio Dep’t of Youth Services , a straight woman alleged that she was passed over for a promotion and then demoted , in both cases because she was not gay. Colin Finnegan of our Kansas City Office has more details about the Court’s decision  here . Before the SCOTUS decision was issued, a number of circuits were requiring plaintiffs in Title VII “reverse discrimination” cases to prove more than plaintiffs in “traditional discrimination” cases. Specifically, the “reverse discrimination” plaintiff had to show, in addition to the usual, that there were background circumstances indicating that the defendant was the “unusual emplo...

Spoiler: Section 503 takes center stage.   The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs dropped three proposed rules on July 1, offering revisions to its existing regulatory scheme. Key highlights : Executive Order 11246 . The OFCCP  proposes to rescind  the implementing regulations altogether. Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act . The OFCCP  proposes to update  the regulations to remove references to Executive Order 11246 and its regulations. Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act . In addition to eliminating references to Executive Order 11246, the OFCCP  proposes to rescind  all obligations relating to disability statistics , including voluntary invitations to applicants and employees to self-identify as disabled, the 7 percent utilization goal for individuals with a disability, and the data collection analysis. Proposed rule to rescind Executive Order 11246 regulations President Trump  revoked Executive Order 11246 ...

Sheesh. Monday is  Social Media Day , and our wonderful Marketing team has asked me to do a blog post in honor of the occasion. In 2024, I had a list of tips about social media for employees and employers. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself, so  here’s a link  in case you missed it, or in case you just want to re-read and savor its awesomeness. For 2025, I have a social media cautionary tale for employers, and it is a doozy. THE CEO WHO COULDN'T SHUT UP A true story Chapter One: The plot thickens In 2022, a company’s Chief Technical Officer started making internal complaints about alleged sex discrimination and retaliation at his place of employment and advocating for some female executives who were allegedly not being treated equitably. I will assume  solely for the sake of argument  that this CTO’s internal complaints lacked merit and that he was a high-maintenance troublemaker and a pain in the neck. Right before Christmas 2022, the employer fired the ...

As we have previously reported , the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is revoking employment authorization documents for certain individuals affected by the termination of humanitarian parole, including beneficiaries of the program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (better known as “CHNV” ). On Friday, E-Verify sent an  email update  with guidance regarding steps that employers must take. Rather than wait for E-Verify to send a case alert, employers must do the following as soon as possible: Log in to E-Verify regularly to generate a Status Change Report . If the Status Change Report indicates that the EADs were revoked for current employees, immediately begin re-verifying each employee using Form I-9, Supplement B, and complete all re-verifications within “a reasonable amount of time.” Employers are directed  not  to create a new E-Verify case for any affected employee , but only to use Form I-9, Supplement B, for re-verification purposes. A “r...