This week Blogging4Jobs has the pleasure of hosting the Employment Law Blog Carnival. The topics this week have been heavily focused on three specific areas with some stragglers here and there. Discrimination in the workplace, contract law, and keeping compliant are the choice topics for legal bloggers during this time of year.

Discrimination, Contracts, & Compliance, Oh My! #ELBC is Here!

Discrimination

The purple nurple was a topic of conversation in a federal appellate court earlier this month with a man’s alleged behavior in a nipple twist in the workplace. The federal court claimed that since there were no sexual advancements previously or after, the nipple twist claim was insufficient to determine it as any form of sexual discrimination. Thanks to Eric B Meyer at The Employer Handbook for this descriptive piece on two men, one purple nurple.

In other news technology is making discrimination easier! Companies like Entelo and LinkedIn use features that allow recruiters to hire more diverse candidates by sorting out based on race and sex. That’s a big no no when it comes to dealing with discrimination in the workplace. Judy and Kate give a few ways to avoid this type of discrimination over on the Employment Law Navigator blog.

Janette Levey Frisch over at The Emplawyerologist talks about Title VII and if really protects against sexual orientation/gender identity. Two cases filed by the EEOC talk about claims from gender discrimination. The question of whether or not this is legal is very grey.

Tolerance is on Heather Bussing’s mind over at HRExaminer. She talks about how tolerating people is not enough when it comes to diversity in the workplace. She breaks it down and gives three key takeaways on how to take diversity above tolerance only.

I’m including Robert Fitzpatrick’s blog at Fitzpatrick on Employment Law in this edition of the ELBC out of my love for the song he references in the title of his post. Fitzpatrick talks about accent discrimination, yes you heard me right, people are discriminating based on different accents in the workplace. Just because you can speak fluent English doesn’t mean you’re getting away with zero discrimination. If you have an accent you might find yourself in the same spot as a Mr. Wilkie in the lawsuit, Wilkie v. Geisinger Sys. Services.

Trying to sue your former employee for a quick buck? According to Donna Ballman at the Screw You Guys, I’m Going Home blog you’re probably not going to get much out of it. Donna goes through a really interesting checklist as to why you’re not going to claim that $184 million dollar check by suing your past employer for discrimination.

Contracts

Who doesn’t love a good arbitration agreement dispute? Philip Miles talks about a recent case discussing employment arbitration agreements in his latest blog. Employers should stop trying to write contracts that are so one sided that it’s deemed unconscionable. Read up on what The Jewelry Exchange did in this most recent battle on arbitration agreements on the blog Lawffice Space.

There are more components behind employment contracts then the formality of them. This is exactly what Rudner MacDonald speaks on in his recent post over at the Rudner MacDonald LLC blog. If you’re a small company and you don’t extend a formal offer, you might want to based on the information he presents in this current article. It gives a lot of good insight into the nature of an employment contract and what should be included in each of them.

Compliance

One of my recent favorite topics from doing my own research has been the issue of wellness programs in the workplace. John Holmquist from the Michigan Employment Law Connection talks about the need for the EEOC to come out with clear guidelines when it comes to corporate wellness programs. There is a lot of debate out there especially with the recent Honeywell case that talks about employers collecting too much information when it comes to an employee’s personal life.

With 2015 quickly coming there are a few compliance issues that companies shouldn’t wait to start. Things such as raising compliance concerns, improving trust during investigations and the resolution process, plus a bonus tip that I will make you click through to read. Lorene from WinWinHR blog shares insightful tips on how to keep your company compliance running strong into the new year.

Obama, FLSA, Moonlighting and More!

If you turn on the news, ever, you will see that Obama has been speaking a lot about immigration reform. What we don’t hear is the effect it’ll have on employers. Jared Jacobson from the I-Sight blog talks about how this immigration reform is going to effect employers in the long term.

Everyone loves a good FLSA post. Doug Hass from Wage & Hour Insights talks about automatic meal period deductions and the FLSA in a Q&A session. He offers up insight from recent cases such as Quickley v. University of Maryland Medical System Corporation. If you have any questions about when and if to give a meal period to employees, this is definitely the blog you should be reading!

Is your HR girl (or guy!) moonlighting as an exotic dancer? Companies sometimes have policies concerning moonlighting and in some cases will punish employees when caught. Learn how you can monitor and create effective policies when it comes to the decision of moonlighting. Thanks to Mike Haberman for providing this excellent piece over at Omega HR Solutions.

Have you ever thought of jury verdicts as just numbers on paper? Jon Hyman did just that over on his blog, Ohio Employer Law Blog. He talks about how a yes vote simply equates to a dollar value that someone is eventually going to have to pay. It’s a very unique way to think about the entire legal system and what it really means to rule in favor of a verdict.

Christmas Themed

It wouldn’t be right to not post blogs this month that were both law and Christmas related. Vanessa Goddard talks about How the Boss Stole Christmas in her fun poem over at Employment Essentials.

Are you looking to go to jail over the holidays? I’m certainly not. Mark Toth over at ManpowerGroup gives real actionable advice that’ll help you stay out of jail during the holidays this year.

And it’s a wrap! Thanks to everyone who submitted blogs for the Employment Law Carnival Blog this month! We had a blast and looking forward to all the great content in 2015! Happy Holidays from the Blogging4Jobs team!