On March 18, 2022, the Department of Justice (“DOJ” or “Department”) published guidance on web accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The guidance addresses how state and local governments (covered by Title II of the ADA) and businesses that are open to the public (otherwise known as “places of public accommodation,” covered by Title III of the ADA) can ensure their websites are compliant with the ADA.
In the last quarter of 2021, 69% of the 2.050 employees surveyed by Global Workplace Analytics and Owl Labs reported working remotely during the pandemic. One third of employees expressed a strong preference for continuing to work remotely, including changing jobs if necessary. Clearly with help from technology, working remotely is rapidly becoming the new normal for many employees. In response to employee preferences in a tight labor market, employers are pivoting to incorporate remote work into their business models. The pivot can morph into a legal hurdle, though when an employee’s remote work location is outside the state in which the employer is located (employer’s home state).
On Friday, May 6, the Tennessee Bar Association held its first in-person Labor & Employment Law Forum since 2019. Among the presenters were John Bode of Miller & Martin PLLC and Paul Merritt of Fortress Consulting, LLC, who discussed workplace violence.
One of my mother’s many pearls of wisdom handed down over the years included this Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”
Campaigns to legalize marijuana at the state and federal levels are blazing nationwide. These efforts are creating a hazy legal landscape for employees, particularly surrounding drug testing in states legalizing or even offering protections for off-the-job employee marijuana use.
On Tuesday, April 19, the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section hosted the panel “Navigating the New Normal: Accommodations in the Pandemic Era.” The panel members were Alex Breland of CDK Global in Chicago, IL; Pamela Devi Chandran of the Washington State Nurses Association in Seattle, WA; and Jackie Gessner of Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Indianapolis, IN. Carolyn Wheeler of Katz, Marshall, & Banks LLP in Washington, DC served as moderator. Their consensus was that, although vaccines have (thankfully) lowered Covid-19 infection and death rates, workplace challenges related to Covid have not gone away. They have only changed.
Most individuals are familiar with online video games such as FIFA, Minecraft, Fortnite or maybe, Last of Us permitting players to play and communicate with others online while seated at their Xbox or PlayStation consoles. Augmented Realty (AR) games, such as Pokémon-GO, superimpose a digital setting into the players’ own real environment, incorporating virtual components into the real world and increasing the level of physical activity.