HR in Five

Epizodes

• 
  Labor Board Ruled Unconstitutional, Then Left Standing 04.08.2026 5min

  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.
• 
  BLS Firing Draws Bipartisan Pushback; NLRB Backs Whole Foods on BLM Dress Code 03.08.2026 6min

  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.
• 
  Visa Blames AI for 2,600 Cuts, Porsche Buys a Decade 31.07.2026 4min

  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.
• 
  DEI Records Head to the EEOC 30.07.2026 3min

  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.
• 
  The Frozen Track for Federal Bias Claims 29.07.2026 4min

  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.
• 
  Peak Office Use Tops Pre-Pandemic, and a $5M Accommodation Bill 28.07.2026 5min

  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.
• 
  AI Hiring Suits, a Dropped Penn Subpoena, and the EEOC's Real Docket 27.07.2026 5min

  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.
• 
  The EEOC Votes to Scrap the EEO-1 24.07.2026 5min

  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.