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Marguerite Goglia

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On March 27, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted a pre-recorded webinar called “Ask the EEOC” on its website. The purpose of the webinar was to answer COVID-19 workplace questions arising under the federal employment discrimination laws the EEOC enforces.  Prior to recording the webinar, and in an effort to ensure that the information provided was relevant to common COVID-19 workplace concerns, the EEOC welcomed public submission of questions. The EEOC reported that “almost 500” questions were submitted. Reed Smith submitted 21 questions, all of which had subparts, designed to gain insight on practical questions likely to be of interest to our employer client base. In the 42-minute webinar, 22 questions were answered by three EEOC representatives: Carol Miaskoff, Associate Legal Counsel of EEOC; Sharon Rennert, Senior Attorney Advisor for ADA and GINA; and Jeanne Goldberg, Acting Assistant Legal Counsel for ADA and GINA.

For the most part, the ground covered during the webinar is familiar to compliance-minded employers generally aware of their EEO obligations. A few questions posed and answered by the EEOC generated useful practical guidance. But one simply worded and powerful question – Is COVID-19 a disability under the ADA? – prompted a surprising “that is unclear at this time” answer from the EEOC.

For purposes of this summary, we selected the five questions posed and answered by the EEOC that we believe are of most interest to employers. Those five are Questions 2, 4, 8, 16, and 21. For each of the five, we provide below the question as posed by the EEOC, a summary of its answer during the webinar, and our commentary.Continue Reading “Ask the EEOC” whether COVID-19 is a disability: Its answer may surprise you

The City of Pittsburgh has provided much needed clarity regarding several lingering questions concerning the Paid Sick Days Act (the Act), which requires all private employers of full- or part-time employees within the City of Pittsburgh to provide paid sick leave benefits.

In July 2019, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the Act following a nearly four-year long legal battle. At that time, the effective date of the Act and the status of prior guidelines issued by the City was unsettled. This week, the City addressed some of those unsettled issues.

First, the City announced that the Act will take effect on March 15, 2020.Continue Reading The City of Pittsburgh publishes new information regarding the Paid Sick Days Act

As technology continues to rapidly evolve, so do hiring and recruiting practices. A number of start-up companies have emerged in recent years offering employers the ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to screen job candidates and determine their employability. These AI-driven recruiting practices, such as those that use facial and voice recognition technologies, are touted as a means of lowering recruiting costs and eliminating bias in the hiring process. But there is growing concern that the use of AI may threaten a job candidate’s privacy and might result in the inadvertent perpetuation of discriminatory hiring practices.

These concerns and others were raised in a recent complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging an investigation into one such company’s business practices. The complaint was filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public interest watchdog located in Washington, D.C. EPIC’s complaint challenges the AI-driven recruiting solutions developed and sold by a company called HireVue, which currently has more than 700 corporate customers that use its technology as part of their hiring process.
Continue Reading Tech industry watchdog challenges AI-driven recruiting practices