HR in Five

Επεισόδια

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  Ontario Narrows Early Dismissals 14.08.2026 5λ

  An Ontario Divisional Court ruling in Bokhari versus Top Medical Transportation Services narrows when the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario can dismiss an application before it is heard, which HRD Canada reports could push more complaints into mediation, summary hearings and full proceedings. Also today, the International Labour Organization counts 67 million unemployed young people globally as employers rethink entry-level roles, and HR Dive reports a worker's lawsuit alleging his employer's lack of a fossil-fuel-free 401(k) option violated his religious rights. Plus, Canadian medical plan costs are projected to rise 8.3 per cent this year on Aon's 2026 Global Medical Trend Rates Report, as CFOs press HR leaders on what benefits spending returns.
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  Canada's Wage Parity Clock, and a Looser UK Causation Test 13.08.2026 3λ

  HRD Canada reports federally regulated employers have until October 20 to prepare for new equal treatment wage rules under the Canada Labour Code, which bar different pay rates for the same work based solely on employment status and put the onus on employers to justify any differential. Personnel Today reports the UK Supreme Court has ruled part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, not the sole cause, a lower bar that puts benefits design and scheduling rules back under review. Also today: an arbitrator struck down the TTC's random drug testing and reinstated a fired bus operator, per HRD Canada; HR Dive reports Zillow faces an untested bias complaint from a White man alleging age-based mockery; and Labor Department official Julie Hocker said return to work efforts should be early, coordinated and sustained, per HR Dive, because the likelihood of return drops significantly as weeks pass.
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  A $4.7M RSU Ruling, and HR's Shrinking Share 12.08.2026 4λ

  Ontario's Court of Appeal ruled a fired Meta employee is entitled to 4.7 million US dollars in restricted stock units that should have vested during his notice period, holding that Meta could not alter his compensation scheme mid-notice, per HRD Canada. Visier's Hidden in the Headcount report, covering 3.6 million employee records, found HR among eleven job domains losing headcount share while data and analytics and product management grew fastest, and HR Dive carries an economist's argument that a historic contraction in the American labor force strengthens the case for AI at work. Also: Visa's job cuts reached six vice presidents and 37 senior directors, a record 1.24 million people are on zero-hours contracts in the UK, and US employers named cancer their top unmanaged cost risk.
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  A Million Fewer Workers, and a New NLRB Majority 11.08.2026 5λ

  Morningstar reports labor force participation fell to 61.4 percent in July, the lowest since February 2021, with the workforce down more than a million people from a year ago on BLS data. HR Dive reports the Senate's 51 to 47 vote confirmed James Macy and David Prouty to the National Labor Relations Board, giving Republicans a 3 to 1 majority, and covers a Fourth Circuit ruling that the ADA may require reassigning a worker who cannot perform a job's essential functions. Reuters reports Apple agreed to pay 150,000 dollars to settle EEOC religious discrimination and retaliation claims involving its Reston, Virginia store, with Apple denying wrongdoing.
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  Tech Layoffs Climb as the July Jobs Report Misses 10.08.2026 5λ

  HR Dive reports Challenger, Gray and Christmas found technology job losses running higher year over year even as layoffs slow elsewhere, while BLS data shows the US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July against expectations of an 80,000 gain, with May and June revised down by a combined 103,000. KFF's read of rate filings puts insurer requests on small group plans at roughly 14 percent next year, another year of double digit increases. Statistics Canada reports the opposite trend north of the border, with 75,000 jobs added and unemployment down to 6.4 percent.
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  Labor's Record Low, and the EEO-1 Countdown 07.08.2026 5λ

  The Bureau of Labor Statistics put workers' share of US output at 52.9 percent of nominal GDP in the second quarter, the lowest since the series began in 1947, alongside stronger than expected productivity growth. HR Executive reports rising medical costs are pushing employers to tighten benefits ahead of renewal season, and HR Dive reports the Fourth Circuit has indicated employers need not wait for workers to fix authenticity problems with FMLA certifications before clarifying them with a provider. Also: attorneys at Buchanan lay out what stays in place if the EEOC ends the EEO-1 filing, with comments due August 24 and a hearing August 11, plus new Payscale and HR Dive data on 2027 salary budgets, the UK talent visa expansion, the Paychex jobs index, and an EEOC suit against KLLM Driving Academy.
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  DEI Moves Into the Rules, and OpenAI Pays $3.2M 06.08.2026 5λ

  A Dentons client alert traces how federal DEI policy shifted from executive orders into regulation, including a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion finding the EEOC's Title Seven disparate-impact framework unconstitutional and a proposed rescission of EEO-1 reporting. HRD Canada reports OpenAI and its subsidiary Statsig will pay 3.2 million dollars to settle Justice Department claims they favored temporary visa holders over United States workers, and HR Dive reports the Fifth Circuit again applied the McDonnell Douglas framework even as a majority of the court signaled openness to revisiting it. Also moving: June payrolls came in at 57,000 against 115,000 expected, SHRM asked the Tenth Circuit for a new trial or reduced award, and the EHRC services code of practice took effect.
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  Openings Slip, and the Labor Force Shrinks 05.08.2026 3λ

  June job openings fell 178,000 to 7.36 million, short of consensus and the weakest in three months, while hires, quits and layoffs held flat, per Tech Times on the BLS release; Indeed Hiring Lab reads the decline as a labor supply story, with the civilian labor force shrinking since late 2025 and healthcare shedding 147,000 openings. Korn Ferry finds only 16% of organizations confident their managers can explain AI-related pay and work changes, per HR Executive, and a Protiviti survey reports the executives closest to workforce readiness are the most cautious on AI timelines, according to HR Dive. British Columbia's Court of Appeal upheld a common employer declaration covering Sobeys and FreshCo franchisees, HRD Canada reports, and employers with a UK presence have three months to comply with updated workplace harassment law.
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  Labor Board Ruled Unconstitutional, Then Left Standing 04.08.2026 5λ

  A Texas federal judge held the National Labor Relations Board's structure unconstitutional but declined to halt its case against Aimbridge Employee Service Corp, per HR Dive, leaving a split with a May ruling that reached the opposite conclusion on severability. HR Executive reports on the EU AI Act's August second date landing on HR's own tools, with compliance practitioners noting a recent deferral pushed stand-alone high-risk obligations past it. Also covered: Federal Reserve research on roughly 490,000 earnings calls finding 95 percent of executives' claimed AI productivity gains are still future tense, an EEOC pregnancy discrimination settlement, and planned job cuts at BMW and BP.
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  BLS Firing Draws Bipartisan Pushback; NLRB Backs Whole Foods on BLM Dress Code 03.08.2026 6λ

  RocketNews reports that former Bureau of Labor Statistics leaders and several non-partisan economic groups condemned President Trump's termination of Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, with Friends of BLS calling the stated rationale without merit and Republican senators questioning the justification. Bloomberg Law reports the NLRB ruled Whole Foods lawfully barred Black Lives Matter messaging on work clothing, and HR Dive reports a Florida appeals court held employers may penalize off-duty medical marijuana use. Also covered: a Conference Board finding that employer training skews away from advanced AI skills, and survey data on managers using AI to weigh sick days, age and tenure in layoff decisions.
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  Visa Blames AI for 2,600 Cuts, Porsche Buys a Decade 31.07.2026 4λ

  Visa is cutting about 2,600 jobs, roughly 7 percent of its workforce, and pointing to AI-driven efficiency as the driver, per HR Executive, though industry reaction reads the framing as investor-facing positioning. Porsche will cut 5,000 jobs by 2035 under a Future Package agreed with its works council, IG Metall and Südwestmetall, ruling out compulsory redundancies through 2035, according to HRD Canada. Also moving: a KPMG and UT Austin study on workers who direct AI agents, employer hesitation over ICHRAs and ACA marketplace costs, a $105,000 jury award in an EEOC sex discrimination case, and an Acas consultation on its disciplinary and grievance code.
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  DEI Records Head to the EEOC 30.07.2026 3λ

  A Wisconsin federal judge ordered Northwestern Mutual to comply with an EEOC subpoena covering 21 categories of DEI program records, including affirmative action plans and an interview with its VP of diversity and inclusion, in a reverse-discrimination charge filed by a White male employee, per HR Dive. Personnel Today reports the UK Supreme Court has ruled the Home Office must state the reason for an employer's right-to-work breach when it issues a civil penalty. Also: SHRM's employment practices insurer Twin City has sued the organization over a $10 million punitive award in a race bias case, one in four workers say they stay in jobs for fear of losing health coverage, and budget analysts now value the employer group health tax break at $6.6 trillion over ten years.
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  The Frozen Track for Federal Bias Claims 29.07.2026 4λ

  Reuters reports the American Federation of Government Employees has sued the EEOC, alleging it has stopped processing class-style discrimination complaints from federal workers since at least December, with administrative judges barred from hearings, discovery and decisions; the AP reports the co-plaintiff class of Bureau of Prisons officers is estimated at at least 182 women. Uber is cutting ten percent of its customer-service staff and citing structural fragmentation slowing its AI adoption, per HRD Canada, which also reports weekly jobless claims at their lowest level since the 1960s while cautioning the print masks a harder-to-read market. Also moving: an NLRB judge's finding against Apex Fintech Solutions over a DEI-related LinkedIn firing, a willful equal pay verdict against Nike, and a tribunal ruling that camera-on instructions can amount to disability discrimination.
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  Peak Office Use Tops Pre-Pandemic, and a $5M Accommodation Bill 28.07.2026 5λ

  CBRE reports peak office use has reached 80 percent, above pre-pandemic levels, per HR Dive, though trade reaction cautions that peak days sit well above average utilization. The Ninth Circuit held that a worker's prior vaccinations should not bar a religious exemption request from a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and Battelle Energy Alliance agreed to pay 5 million dollars to resolve EEOC charges over denied religious and disability accommodations, per the Idaho State Journal and East Idaho News. Also moving: Culture Amp on falling AI optimism, a Bank of America read on employee financial security, Ford's deal with Unifor, and a Senate vote lining up on labor agency nominees.
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  AI Hiring Suits, a Dropped Penn Subpoena, and the EEOC's Real Docket 27.07.2026 5λ

  Employee Benefit News reports on two lawsuits, Mobley v. Workday and Doe v. Meta, testing whether AI hiring and performance systems properly account for disability-related leave and accommodations; Workday and Meta both deny the allegations. The Trump administration agreed to drop an EEOC subpoena that ordered the University of Pennsylvania to hand over the names of Jewish people on its campus, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, with Penn dropping its Third Circuit appeal in exchange. A law-firm client alert finds disability claims were the single largest share of EEOC filings in the first half of the year, even though disability did not appear among the agency's four stated enforcement priorities.
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  The EEOC Votes to Scrap the EEO-1 24.07.2026 5λ

  The EEOC voted 2 to 1 to propose rescinding the EEO-1 workforce demographic report, a filing in place since 1966 covering roughly 73,000 employers, per the Associated Press, with the obligation still in force through a 30-day comment period. The D.C. Circuit rejected the NLRB's successor-bar doctrine in Hospital Menonita de Guayama, and a federal judge in Brooklyn permanently blocked New York's NLRB trigger law as preempted under Garmon. Also: Labor Department opinion letters on compensable midday commutes, a Third Circuit ruling on when an employee's passing health remark triggers ADA obligations, and a Google employee petition on severance and forced rating distributions.