Can an employer require its employees to speak only English in the workplace? Can you deem someone not qualified if he brings a translator to the interview? Tweet

Pepsi’s $3.13 million settlement with the EEOC over an overly broad background check policy should cause all employers who use such checks to re-evaluate their policies. While background checks can provide invaluable information to employers in the hiring process, if used improperly, they may be deemed tools of discrimination. As we discuss in our Talking [...]

Reflecting back over the last year, perhaps one of the most interesting employment cases involved “The Cat’s Paw” fable about the perils of allowing oneself to take action without regard to consequences due to the manipulative encouragement of another. Tweet

In a continued effort to reduce accidents from distracted driving, the federal government has banned as of January 3, 2012, all commercial motor vehicle drivers from using hand-held mobile phones while driving. Tweet

In a case decided in late August, Weth v O’Leary, a federal court in Virginia sent a wake-up call to all public employer supervisors when it held that the Treasurer of Arlington County could be held personally liable for interfering with the rights of an employee who was on Family and Medical Leave.  The case has [...]

For those of you who draft, work with and seek to enforce restrictive covenants, pay particular attention to the recent November 2011 Virginia Supreme Court decision in Home Paramount Pest Control Companies, Inc. v. Shaffer. At first blush, the case appears to be nothing more than another decision in a long line of recent decisions [...]