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U.S. Supreme Court rules drug reps are exempt as “outside salesmen”

By Nancy Williams Pharmaceutical representatives who persuade physicians to prescribe specific drugs don’t make any actual sales. They can’t because the products they promote can be sold legally only through a doctor’s prescription to an individual patient. Yet for years, it has been a common industry practice to categorize such employees as outside sales representatives […]

Homerun on customer service

Homerun on customer service

It can be hard to describe good customer service, but you sure know it when you see it. Last week, I was at — of all things — a baseball tournament in the greater Atlanta-metro area. The tournament wasn’t a small volunteer undertaking. The organization that sponsored the tournament is national in scope and has […]

Taking Environmental Sensitivities Seriously

By Lindsey Taylor The issue of employees with environmental sensitivities often arises for Canadian employers. Most commonly, employees complain about sensitivities to strong scents such as perfume. Human rights laws in many provinces accept that environmental sensitivities may be disabilities, to which the duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship may apply. This […]

Unfortunate HR Rule: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

“No good deed goes unpunished.” Nowhere is that maxim more applicable than when untrained supervisors and managers try to be good bosses. If you’ve got new, or recently promoted, supervisors or managers, see if any of these situations are familiar: “Do you think you might be depressed?” asks the concerned, but untrained, boss. “I didn’t,” […]

EEOC Issues “Arrest and Conviction Records” Guidance

By Richard Lehr During the past several years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has increased its focus on employers’ use of background check information, particularly arrest and conviction records. On April 25, the EEOC issued its revised “Enforcement Guidance on Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the […]

Disability Charges and Enforcement on the Rise

Since the enactment of the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) in 2009, commentators have been predicting a rise in disability claims. Statistics recently released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) show that those predictions have come true. In fiscal year 2011, the number of disability discrimination charges filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) […]

EEOC Declares that Title VII Protects Transgender Employees

By Heather Knox The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that interprets and enforces employment discrimination laws, recently considered whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects transgender employees from workplace discrimination. The case involved an employee who claimed she wasn’t hired by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and […]