Federal Worker Protection

American workers are protected by a number of antidiscrimination laws. The primary federal antidiscrimination laws include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. They do not, however, protect workers from discrimination based upon their marital status, sexual orientation, or status as a parent.

The Senior Executive Service

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created the Senior Executive Service (SES) as a third branch of the federal civil service. The SES is designed to be a group of policy-level executives selected for their leadership skills. The SES is completely separate from the other two branches of the service, the excepted service and the competitive service. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is responsible for overseeing the federal civil service, including the SES.

Accrual, Vesting, and Forfeiture of Pension Plans under ERISA

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is a federal law that regulates certain employee benefits such as health plans and pension plans and specifies certain minimum standards for those plans. ERISA provides certain reporting and disclosure requirements and imposes fiduciary responsibility on the administrators of ERISA-governed plans.

Employer Monitoring of Employee's Electronic Communications

Several decades ago, the question of whether employers could monitor employees' communications was relatively simple. It was fairly well established that while employers could monitor business calls, they could not, with a few limited exceptions, eavesdrop on employees' personal phone calls. Today, employee communication has become high tech..

Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor

Background