Workforce Bulletin

The top story on Employment Law This Week is the EEOC's filing of its first sexual orientation bias suits.

Last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination against an individual for sexual orientation. The EEOC concluded that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of unlawful gender discrimination. This month, the agency filed two landmark federal lawsuits seeking to enforce its interpretation of the statute for the first time. The agency is suing on behalf of workers at a company in Baltimore and ...

Our colleagues have a new post on the Retail Labor and Employment Law blog that will help many of our readers at this time of year: "Summer's Coming! How to Handle Unpaid Internships," by Jeffrey Landes, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Nancy L. Gunzenhauser.

By Jeffrey Landes, Susan Gross Sholinsky, and Nancy L. Gunzenhauser

A hot topic for every summer – but particularly this summer – is the status of unpaid interns. You are probably aware that several wage and hour lawsuits have been brought regarding the employment status of unpaid interns, particularly in the entertainment and publishing industries. The theory behind these cases is that the interns in question don’t fall within the “trainee” exception to the definition of “employee” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), as well as applicable ...

By Nancy L. Gunzenhauser and Jeffrey M. Landes

It’s performance review season…meaning reports of various performance review systems are making headlines for employers. In a recent survey by OnForce, former technology employees turned-independent contractors stated that performance reviews were one of the least missed aspects of working as employees, only behind commuting. Performance reviews come in various types, with some causing more controversy than others. One of the most controversial types of performance review systems is the bell-curve (aka “forced” or ...