Category Archives: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Age Discrimination, Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, WV Human Rights Act, WV Human Rights Commission

The Roles of the EEOC and the West Virginia Human Rights Commission in Workplace Discrimination Claims

Leave a comment

Work­place dis­crim­i­na­tion is a seri­ous issue, and employ­ees who believe they’ve been treat­ed unfair­ly often turn to the Equal Employ­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion (“EEOC”) or the West Vir­ginia Human Rights Com­mis­sion (“HRC”) for help. But what exact­ly do the EEOC and HRC do, and how does the com­plaint process work? Whether you’re an employ­er try­ing to stay com­pli­ant or an employ­ee con­sid­er­ing fil­ing a claim, it is impor­tant to under­stand the EEOC’s and HRC’s roles.

What Is the EEOC?

The EEOC is the fed­er­al agency respon­si­ble for enforc­ing anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion laws in the work­place. It inves­ti­gates com­plaints of dis­crim­i­na­tion based on race, sex, age, dis­abil­i­ty, nation­al ori­gin, reli­gion, and oth­er pro­tect­ed char­ac­ter­is­tics under laws like:

  • Title VII of the Civ­il Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e‑2)
  • The Age Dis­crim­i­na­tion in Employ­ment Act (ADEA) (29 U.S.C. § 623)
  • The Amer­i­cans with Dis­abil­i­ties Act (ADA) (42 U.S.C. § 12112)

The agency also enforces laws pro­hibit­ing retal­i­a­tion, mean­ing an employ­er can’t pun­ish an employ­ee for fil­ing a com­plaint or par­tic­i­pat­ing in an investigation.

Con­tin­ue read­ing The Roles of the EEOC and the West Vir­ginia Human Rights Com­mis­sion in Work­place Dis­crim­i­na­tion Claims →
Artificial Intelligence, Employment policies, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Independent Contractors, Non-compete agreements, Wage and Hour Issues

Evolving Landscape of Employment Law: Key Updates for 2025

Leave a comment

If you’re an employ­er or an employ­ee, keep­ing up with employ­ment law changes can feel like chas­ing a mov­ing tar­get. With new court deci­sions, leg­isla­tive updates, and evolv­ing work­place norms, it’s more impor­tant than ever to stay informed. As we set­tle into 2025, here are some of the most sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ments shap­ing employ­ment law across the country—and par­tic­u­lar­ly in West Virginia.

1. Remote Work and Wage & Hour Compliance

The pan­dem­ic may be in the rearview mir­ror, but remote and hybrid work are here to stay. That shift has raised fresh legal ques­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it comes to wage and hour compliance.

A major trend we’re see­ing is increased scruti­ny from the U.S. Depart­ment of Labor (DOL) regard­ing remote work­ers’ over­time eli­gi­bil­i­ty. The Fair Labor Stan­dards Act (FLSA) requires employ­ers to track hours worked accu­rate­ly, but when employ­ees are log­ging in from home, com­pli­ance gets tricky. Employ­ers must ensure that non-exempt employ­ees are prop­er­ly record­ing breaks, over­time, and any “off-the-clock” work.

West Vir­ginia busi­ness­es with remote employ­ees should take a close look at their time-track­ing poli­cies to avoid poten­tial wage claims. Even an hon­est mistake—like fail­ing to count time spent respond­ing to emails after hours—can lead to cost­ly litigation.

2. Noncompete Agreements Under Fire

Non­com­pete agree­ments have been a hot-but­ton issue in recent years, and 2025 is shap­ing up to be a turn­ing point. The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) issued a rule (April 2024) with a near­ly com­pre­hen­sive nation­wide ban on most non­com­pete claus­es, argu­ing that they sti­fle job mobil­i­ty and wage growth. 

I will dis­cuss below the legal chal­lenges to the FTC rule, but employ­ers should review their exist­ing agree­ments and con­sid­er whether non­com­petes are still enforce­able (in light of applic­a­ble state law and the prospect of the FTC rule sur­viv­ing legal attacks) or if alter­na­tive protections—such as con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and non­so­lic­i­ta­tion clauses—are a bet­ter approach.

Sta­tus of the FTC rule

Con­tin­ue read­ing Evolv­ing Land­scape of Employ­ment Law: Key Updates for 2025 →
Age Discrimination, Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

EEOC has updated its poster that employers must display

Leave a comment

The Unit­ed States Equal Employ­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion (“EEOC”) has updat­ed its poster that employ­ers are required to dis­play in their work­places. Here is the EEOC’s web site on its poster. Here is an inter­net (HTML) copy of the poster. Here is the PDF of the print­able poster for wall dis­play. The name of the poster is “Know Your Rights: Work­place Dis­crim­i­na­tion is Illegal”.

The poster does a good job of edu­cat­ing employ­ees and employ­ers on essen­tial aspects of the fed­er­al anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion laws. It cov­ers what employ­ees are pro­tect­ed, what employ­ers are cov­ered, the pro­tect­ed char­ac­ter­is­tics about which the laws pro­hib­it dis­crim­i­na­tion, the deci­sions and con­duct of the employ­ers that are pro­hib­it­ed, and how an employ­ee can file a charge with the EEOC. In light of new­er tech­nol­o­gy, the poster has a QR code so an employ­ee can user a phone to jump straight to the EEOC’s web site for fil­ing a charge.

Con­tin­ue read­ing EEOC has updat­ed its poster that employ­ers must dis­play →