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While the First Amendment provides significant protections against the government limiting its citizens’ freedom of speech, these protections become much more constrained and complicated when the government is the citizen’s employer. For public sector employees, their freedom of speech is heavily regulated when it comes to partisan political speech and activity. As the election season quickly approaches, let’s take a moment to freshen up on the rules in Ohio regarding political activity. Political activity of Ohio public employees is regulated by R.C. § 124.57 and OAC 123:1-46-02. The Ohio Revised Code (“R.C.”) prohibits classified officers and employees from participating in partisan political activities, while the Ohio Administrative Code (“OAC”) provides guidelines for understanding political activity. There are several key terms frequently used by the statute—and this article—that must first be defined: “Classified service”- all persons in active pay status serving [...]

Workplace discrimination claims are on the rise. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports a 50% increase in employment discrimination lawsuits between fiscal years 2022 and 2023 alone. Now more than ever employers should be aware of what conduct constitutes discrimination, how to manage complaints of discrimination, and how to proactively prevent discrimination from permeating into the workplace. In an effort to assist employers and employees alike with preventing workplace harassment and assessing discrimination claims, the EEOC published new guidance this year titled “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.” This new guidance touches on a wide variety of workplace harassment and discrimination claims, but primarily focuses on discrimination and harassment of LGBTQ+ Workers. This Guidance builds off the US Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton, which held that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation [...]

Public and private employers alike should be aware of the recent changes to employee overtime laws. On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule (“the Final Rule”) entitled Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees which became effective on July 1, 2024. The Final Rule updates and revises the regulations issued under Section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act by implementing an exemption from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) employees, in addition to updating the standard salary level and highly compensated employee total annual compensation threshold. The goal of this change, as outlined by the Department of Labor, is to address concerns regarding the current salary and compensation thresholds that were set in the 2019 rule, and to provide a [...]