Roundup: Paid prenatal care in NY; Handling accommodation requests; Employment law trends; Senior executives and noncompetes; Pregnancy accommodation

New York is the first state to make leave for prenatal care paid. And it's on top of whatever other paid or unpaid leave the employee may be entitled to. Care during pregnancy is essential for the health of the parent and for a healthy baby. Good for New York.

This is a great discussion of a recent case where an employee returning from surgery was struggling and the employer didn't understand that they needed accommodations. It's important to listen to employees when they get back from medical leave.

Each of these employment law trends is designed to protect employees. We should talk more about why employees need so much legal protection. And it's not because employers are mean and horrible, although some definitely are.

Mostly, employers are doing what they are supposed to do, which is to make money.

Yes, I know the FTC's noncompete ban is being challenged. Both organizations and management side attorneys who use noncompete agreements are hoping they will be enjoined by the courts.

The challenge is by the US Chamber of Commerce who claims the FTC does not have the authority to ban noncompete agreements. We'll see.

This has to be one of the clearest cases of pregnancy discrimination I've seen. They did everything wrong then came up with a ridiculous explanation that they have no evidence to support.

Robin Shea has a great analysis of what you do not want to do when your pregnant HR managers asks for accommodations and then is ready to return from maternity leave