Must an Employer Allow a Resigning Employee to “Work Out a Notice?”

by John Lawhorn | Jun 9, 2017 | EAST TENNESSEE EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISER, EMPLOYMENT LAW

As an employment lawyer, I tend to focus a substantial part of my time on the consequences that may follow employee terminations that are involuntary. From time to time, however, questions do arise in the context of voluntary resignations. For instance, I am...

Federal Appeals Court Holds Title VII Prohibits Sexual Orientation Discrimination

by John Lawhorn | Apr 10, 2017 | EAST TENNESSEE EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISER, EMPLOYMENT LAW

In the last 9 months, I have twice posted on efforts by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a number of private litigants to have federal courts construe federal statutory protections against certain forms of workplace discrimination to include...

Employee Beware: Understand Your Rights Before Signing or Litigating a Non-Competition Agreement or Other Employment Contract

by John Lawhorn | Jan 26, 2017 | EAST TENNESSEE EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISER, EMPLOYMENT LAW

I am regularly asked by employees to review various types of employment contracts, including employee non-competition agreements. More often than not these employees are Tennessee residents who work in a Tennessee-based office (or home office) and whose job duties are...

UPDATE: Texas Federal Court Blocks Implementation of New Overtime Rules

by John Lawhorn | Nov 23, 2016 | EAST TENNESSEE EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISER, EMPLOYMENT LAW

Public and private employers throughout the United States received an early holiday gift from a United States district court in Texas on November 22, 2016. As I have discussed previously in this blog, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) issued new rules...

Further Developments On Extending Title VII Protection To Sexual Orientation Discrimination

by John Lawhorn | Oct 27, 2016 | EAST TENNESSEE EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISER, EMPLOYMENT LAW

In August 2016, I discussed a recent decision of the United States 7th Circuit Court of Appeals which held “that Title VII does not redress sexual orientation discrimination.” As I mentioned in that post, the 7th Circuit’s decision was the first federal appeals court...

Mandatory Flu Vaccination Policies for Healthcare Workers Are Receiving Court Approval

by John Lawhorn | Sep 27, 2016 | EAST TENNESSEE EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISER, EMPLOYMENT LAW

As fall approaches, many employers are preparing to offer flu vaccinations to their employees. In most work settings, this is a voluntary benefit that employees may choose to accept or not, based on their own personal beliefs regarding such vaccinations. In the...