News

The Supreme Court has started the 2025–2026 term, and it looks to be an interesting one for employers. Here’s a breakdown of pending cases and issues.

Effective Sept. 30, the EEOC has closed its processing of cases where the basis for the complaint is an allegation that an employer’s practices or policies have a disparate impact on members of a protected class. These are cases where the employer isn’t accused of intentional discrimination, but the policy or practice impacts a protected class more than it impacts other applicants or employers.

Not everyone wants to spend their time deleting emails, blocking co-workers they don’t see eye to eye with or reading rants on message boards or “forward to all” emails. But employers sometimes don’t know when they can discipline over employees’ posts on and off company resources. Now, a federal appeals court has clarified some limits in a recent case.

HR professionals frequently encounter situations where “what is legal” and “what is right” do not align. At the 2025 HR Specialist Summit, Suzanne Lucas, the “Evil HR Lady,” tackled this challenge head-on and offered practical tools for navigating through these dilemmas.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced Project Firewall, a new enforcement program that will investigate whether employers are abusing visa programs that bring non-citizens into the country to work.

What should an employer do when confronted with a demand to fire an employee over social media posts that may attract unwanted attention to their employer?

We were approached by a member of the public who claims an employee of ours made a social media post about the killing of Charlie Kirk, requesting that we fire him. The problem is he’s a former employee and not a current one, but apparently his social media footprint still lists him as our employee. What can we do?

September is National Recovery Month, highlighting the work being done to help Americans recover from often-devastating addictions to drugs and alcohol. It’s a good time to review your policies on detecting, preventing and eliminating drug abuse in the workplace to make sure you’re doing so the legal way.

Littler’s 2025 Labor Day Report points to a year defined by legal battles, state-level countermeasures and ongoing questions about the balance of power between employers, workers and regulators. These are the major trends to watch, according to the law firm.

On Sept. 4, the Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry into how noncompetes affect workers and employers—while simultaneously ordering a major company to stop enforcing restrictive contracts on nearly 1,800 employees. Just one day later, however, the agency backed away from defending its broader Non-Compete Clause Rule in court, leaving employers to navigate a patchwork of evolving restrictions and enforcement risks.