Michigan employment attorney

Employee noncompete restrictions are supposed to provide a company with a means to preserve its legitimate competitive interests when an employment relationship ends. But they can also be used by unscrupulous employers to make demands that outside of the guardrails of the judicial system would resemble extortion.

This post discusses a recent example of arguably

In June, Michigan passed anti-discrimination legislation that makes hair discrimination illegal.

CROWN Act prohibits hair discrimination

This new law, officially known as the “CROWN Act” (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), amends the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to expand the definition of race to ban hair discrimination. It prohibits discrimination based on hair texture or type.

Covid Religious Discrimination ClaimsOn May 17, 2022, the Mayo Clinic was sued by a former employee who believes her religious freedoms were violated by the Clinic’s workplace vaccine policies. Notably, Mayo Clinic accepted the plaintiff’s request for a religious exemption from its vaccine requirement. But the employee, Sherry Ihde, claims Mayo Clinic’s requirement that employees exempt from the

Dreadlock race discrimination A Michigan bill to amend Michigan’s principal anti-discrimination statute to explicitly ban race-based hair discrimination, e.g., prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture and style, has stalled in the state legislature.

Specifically, Michigan House Bill 4275, also called the CROWN Act (an acronym standing for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), was introduced

unfair competition
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President Biden signed an Executive Order broadly targeting anti-competitive tactics that disadvantage smaller businesses and people.

One aspect of this order targets the use of noncompete agreements. Under the Order, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is encouraged to ban or limit noncompete agreements.

The noncompete provision of the Order

CoronavirusMichigan’s Dept. of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) and Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) launched a new program focused on supporting Michigan businesses to reopen safely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program is called the MIOSHA Ambassador Program. It offers education and one-on-one guidance to help businesses understand regulations on workplace

Bio-hazard

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan announced on March 11, 2020, visitor restrictions for entering its five courthouses to prevent the spread of the virus.

The full restrictions are available here. These restrictions were issued in response to Governor Whitmer’s State of Emergency, which we discussed here.

In sum,

Partial Response to Sexual Harassment is no solutionThe results of a sexual harassment internal investigation by the Michigan Senate’s human resource office concluded that Michigan State Senator Pete Lucido likely engaged in “inappropriate workplace behavior.” That is troubling. But, equally troubling is the response from the top Senate Leader.

The sexual harassment investigation and report.

The sexual harassment investigation was launched after

Michigan Amendments Paid Sick LeaveDepending upon your perspective, Michigan voters were given a big lump of coal or Michigan businesses got an early Christmas present.

Specifically, this week Governor Snyder signed bills to delay and limit the scope of voter-approved ballot measures that would have increased the minimum wage and required employers to provide paid sick time to their