UPDATE - Please Read

On November 12, 2021, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion reaffirming its earlier stay of the OSHA Private Employer ETS. As a result, OSHA has confirmed that it is suspending activities related to implementing and enforcing the Private Employer ETS pending future developments in litigation.

Moving forward, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will randomly designate one circuit court of appeals from among those where lawsuits against the OSHA Private Employer ETS have been filed to consolidate and hear all OSHA Private Employer ETS lawsuits.

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Religious Accommodations: Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs

Employers typically should assume that a request for religious accommodation is based on a sincerely held religious belief. However, if the employer has a valid and objective reason to request more information from an employee or to doubt the validity of a request, they may ask additional questions, tailored for the individual assessment being conducted.

The EEOC identified the following factors that might undermine the credibility of an employee's claim:

• The employee has acted inconsistently with the professed belief. However, the EEOC said, "employees need not be scrupulous in their observance."
• The employee is seeking a "particularly desirable" accommodation that is likely to be sought for nonreligious reasons.
• The timing of the request is suspicious. For example, the employee may have recently requested the same benefit for secular reasons and been denied.
• The employer otherwise has reason to believe the accommodation is not sought for religious reasons.

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How To Conduct A Proper Termination

Last week, several clients did what sometimes needs to be done:  they terminated an employee’s employment.

Some of the reasons for last week’s terminations included:

• Attendance issues; refusal to adhere to their job description.
• Alcohol and substance abuse on company property.
• Complaints from team members and clients about the employee; creating a toxic work environment.

Some points to remember when terminating an employee:

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Congratulations to Lisa!

HR Partners is thrilled to announce that Lisa Zerbe, one of our most senior Human Resources Advisors, has taken and passed the Society for Human Resource Management - Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) certification examination.

The SHRM-CP examination contains two types of multiple choice questions:  stand-alone knowledge-based items that assess a candidate's knowledge and understanding of factual information, and scenario-based situational judgment items that assess a candidate's judgment, application and decision-making skills.

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