The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released new guidance related to employers’ use of applicant and employee arrest and conviction information.

The new guidance, approved in a 4-1 vote during a meeting on April 25, includes information on how an employer’s use of an individual’s criminal history in making employment decisions could violate the prohibition against discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The new guidance explains that an employer’s use of criminal history must be “job related and consistent with business necessity.”

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new rule aimed at clarifying when the “reasonable factors other than age” (RFOA) defense can be used in claims filed under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The rule is to be published in the Federal Register on March 30.

A statement from the EEOC says the final rule clarifies that the ADEA prohibits policies and practices that have the effect of harming older individuals more than younger individuals unless the employer can show that the policy or practice is based on an RFOA.

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released new guidance addressing how changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) affect the employment of veterans with disabilities.

One of the guides is aimed at employers, and the other is for veterans. Both are available at www.eeoc.gov.

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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released new certification forms for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The new forms carry an expiration date of February 28, 2015, and replace forms that had a December 31, 2011, expiration date.

The new forms appear to be identical to the old forms except for the expiration date. They don’t include the “safe harbor” language required by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which informs employees that they shouldn’t provide any genetic information when responding to any employer request for medical information.

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is seeking comment through February 1 on a four-year strategic plan, and it’s important for employers to know what that plan means to them.

The draft of the 2012-2016 plan calls for the agency to:

• fight employment discrimination through law enforcement;
• prevent discrimination through education and outreach; and
• improve delivery of services to the public. read more…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is touting fiscal year 2011 as a record year for obtaining monetary settlements and taking in discrimination charges. Also, the agency said it finished the fiscal year on September 30 with a 10 percent decrease in its pending charge inventory, the first such reduction since 2002.

The agency released its Performance and Accountability Report on November 15. Here are some of the highlights: read more…

Employers have some new language to include on certain Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) forms because of the Genetic Information Nondisclosure Act (GINA), according to employment law attorney Stacie L. Caraway, who led an FMLA session at the October Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee.

Caraway says a one-paragraph statement is available on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) website and tells doctors not to include any genetic information on the FMLA certification form. Including the EEOC language also gives employers a “safe harbor” showing that even if the doctor provides prohibited information, the employer didn’t violate the law.

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Today is the day! Although many thought the day might never come, the final regulations under the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) are finally effective. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released these long-awaited regulations earlier this spring, and employers have been scrambling to become familiar with the intricacies of the new final rules, which are significantly different from the proposed regulations the EEOC issued in September 2009.

The final regulations aren’t very employer-friendly. In fact, the EEOC makes clear that the ADAAA’s primary purpose is to make it easier for individuals with disabilities to be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and that employers need to focus on whether they have complied with their obligations under the ADA and whether discrimination has occurred, instead of whether an employee’s impairment meets the definition of disability.

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More than two years after the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) went into effect, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has finalized regulations interpreting the law’s requirements. For the most part, the final regulations provide exactly the type of comprehensive guidance employers were hoping for. In any event, they are a dramatic departure from (and an improvement over) the proposed regulations the EEOC issued in September 2009.

Let’s look at the regulations’ key provisions and what they mean for employers.

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By David S. Fortney, Editor Federal Employment Law Insider
Fortney & Scott, LLC

More than two years after the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) went into effect, the Equal Employment Opportunity Agency (EEOC) is finally issuing regulations interpreting the law’s requirements. The regulations provide crucial information for employers who, for the past two years, have struggled to comply with the ADAAA with no regulatory guidance on what was required of them.

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