The central provision of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits discrimination because of an individual's age. In that respect, it is identical to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination because of an individual=s race or sex. As far back as 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court held that "reverse discrimination" under Title VII was prohibited, i.e., it violated Title VII to favor blacks over whites or women over men. In February 2004, however, the Court h

Two January 2004 decisions, one by the Federal District Court for the District of Colorado and one by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, significantly cut back the rights and remedies ADA retaliation claim plaintiffs felt they enjoyed. In these cases, the courts whittled down the claims brought by the plaintiffs to a single claim: retaliation under Section 12203 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Plaintiffs have previously sought to recover compensatory and punitive

As employers search for new ways to control the increasing cost of providing health-care coverage to their employees, they need to understand the alphabet soup of health-care reimbursement arrangements available under existing law.

Workplace misconduct investigations are often too difficult or too sensitive for internal staff members to conduct. Consequently, many companies have turned to outside professionals, including attorneys, to conduct such investigations. In 1998, as a result of an inquiry from an attorney named Vail, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an opinion that any outsider who is hired to investigate employee misconduct is a "consumer reporting agency" and subject to the disclosure requirements of th

Taxpayers, both individuals and entities alike, are anxious to file returns when a refund from the IRS will line their pockets. Very few taxpayers, however, are aware of their ability to initiate a refund process. With the ever-changing content of the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, and interpretation through court rulings, most taxpayers are unaware of new tax law developments that could provide them with a financial benefit. A recent ruling in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims prov

So a "problem employee" has resigned before you had to terminate him. Your problems are over, right? No employee who has resigned can bring a claim against her employer, can she?

Most employers are familiar with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal law that governs minimum wage and overtime. However, recent changes to the regulations addressing white-collar employees may have employers scrambling to ensure that their workers are being properly paid. This article discusses the important highlights of the new regulations, which go into effect on August 23, 2004.

We frequently review health plans maintained for employees by their employers. Some of these group health plans provide domestic partner coverage, not only for an employee's unmarried partner of the same or opposite sex, but also for the dependents of these partners. This scenario presents some interesting results under the continuation coverage rules of the federal law called the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, or "COBRA."

On June 14, 2004, in <I>Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders</I>, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a sexual harassment case that has important implications for employers. An employer is strictly liable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when a supervisor's official act of harassment precipitates a constructive discharge.

Bill Gates predicted what IBM missed: that the currency of the computer revolution would not be mainframes but desktops (and now laptops, PDAs, and cell phones). Personal computing devices allow us to move information-even massive amounts of information-with just a few keystrokes or clicks of a mouse.

The Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1985, or "COBRA," contains detailed continuation coverage rules that apply to a plan maintained by an employer for its employees. In spring 2003, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations with new notice and disclosure requirements for these continuation coverage rules. In May 2004, the DOL finalized these regulations to apply for plan years beginning after November 26, 2004.

The Supreme Court recently let stand a case holding that the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") preempted state law claims brought by a non-union company against a union "salt." (A "salt" is a union organizer who tries to get hired at a non-union company in order to organize the company from within.)

Over the last several years, corporate governance has become a hot topic among politicos, in the courts, and perhaps most important, in the court of public opinion. Scandalous stories involving Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, Martha Stewart, and the New York Stock Exchange/Dick Grasso have all made front-page news on multiple occasions. With the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Congress implemented sweeping reforms, dramatically affecting public companies (and in some instances, private compa

every company had a resident sociologist, his or her most interesting assignment might be studying how the company goes about implementing national social policies in its workplace. This is because the employment relationship has become an incubator for many important public policies.

In tight real estate markets, developers look for "marketing edges" that will spur sales. Such advantages often come in the form of recreational amenities, such as greenbelts, hiking and biking trails, parks, playgrounds, clubhouses, tennis courts, swimming pools, and even golf courses.