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Publications
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03.20.2024Courts Revisit the Boundaries of “Adverse Employment Actions” Under Title VIIUpdatesCourts continue to explore whether the threshold for actionable “adverse employment actions” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been construed too narrowly. Upending several decades of precedent, in 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit broadened the scope to permit claims of discrimination that would have been rejected in the past for failure to constitute an “ultimate” employment decision.
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08.22.2023Update: Race-Related Hair Discrimination Is Now Prohibited in TexasPodcastsA new law recently went into effect in the State of Texas called the Texas CROWN Act, which prohibits employers, labor unions, and employment agencies from discriminating against Texas employees because of hairstyles associated with race.
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06.07.2023Race-Related Hair Discrimination Is Now Prohibited in TexasUpdates
The Texas CROWN Act, effective September 1, 2023, prohibits employers, labor unions, and employment agencies from discriminating against Texas employees because of hairstyles associated with race. Employers in the state should take appropriate steps to review and update their employee handbooks and hiring, grooming, and dress code policies.
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01.14.2021Panel Upends the Rules of FLSA Collective Actions in the Fifth CircuitUpdatesIn an unexpected shift, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Swales v. KLLM Transport Services, LLC, ordered courts to abandon the commonly followed “two-step” certification process for collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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02.28.2017Texas Workplace Sexual Assaults May Not be Treated as Sexual HarassmentUpdatesIn Texas, some victims of workplace sexual assault may pursue common law assault claims against their employers, following a recent Supreme Court of Texas ruling.
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04.18.2016Workplace Free Speech: When Politics and Religion CollideArticles
Law360
Presentations
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06.22.2016Conducting Interviews – Approaching People for Information and HelpSeminarsLabor & Employment Law Briefing / Dallas, TX
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01.28.2016The Intersection of Religious Discrimination and Political SpeechSpeaking EngagementsCLE Presentation / Dallas, TX
Wage & Hour Developments
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Giving a Nondiscretionary Bonus? Check the Regular Rate Calculation
Determining an employee’s overtime rate of pay can be tricky. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently found an employer owed over $1 million in back wages to employees in California and Kentucky for violations that included miscomputation of overtime pay rates. The employer failed to account for certain bonuses earned by nonexempt workers, and...
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Department of Labor Warns Employers to Know the Rules for Putting Minors to Work
Among employers’ efforts to stay on top of numerous wage and hour issues, the rules surrounding child labor have long been considered irrelevant by many large employers because persons under age 18 did not make up a significant segment of their workforce. With acute labor shortages throughout the United States leading to more job openings...
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Panel Upends the Rules of FLSA Collective Actions in the Fifth Circuit
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ordered courts to discontinue using a “two-step” certification process where the first step customarily results in the distribution of notice of opt-in rights to putative class members. The order affirmatively rejects the nearly “universal” approach of the 1987 New Jersey district court opinion, Lusardi v. Xerox...
