Emily Ayvazian

Emily Ayvazian works with local, regional, and Fortune 500 companies in navigating workplace matters. Her experience includes litigation in federal and state courts as well as before the AAA, EEOC, NLRB, and state and local administrative agencies. As part of her practice, Emily works with clients to institute practices and training that promote effective compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Subscribe to all posts by Emily Ayvazian

Rx for Safety: Workplace Violence Policies in Healthcare Settings

Hospitals, urgent care clinics, doctors’ offices — these are the places we go when we are sick and want to get better. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are the people who treat us, help us recover, and even save our lives in medical emergencies. Yet according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare … Continue Reading

Alert: The 2022 EEO-1 Collection Period Will Begin October 31

By Emily Ayvazian on September 28, 2023 Posted in Employee Handbooks & Policies

EEO-1 reporting season will soon be upon us. As we previously wrote, the 2022 EEO-1 reporting deadline has been a moving target. Almost since its founding in the 1960’s, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has collected data from employers about the demographics of their workforces as a means of ensuring compliance with equal employment … Continue Reading

Bias Beware: Automated Employment Decision Tools in the Workplace

By Emily Ayvazian on June 20, 2023 Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention

Artificial Intelligence seems to be everywhere these days. As we wrote last month, generative AI tools are rapidly becoming a workplace temptation for employees seeking to streamline their job duties. Similarly, AI has taken on a role in recruiting and hiring at many companies, which has drawn scrutiny from the EEOC, as well as state … Continue Reading

New Protections for Working Mothers: The PUMP Act

By Emily Ayvazian on March 28, 2023 Posted in Employee Handbooks & Policies, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention

Nursing mothers now have pumped up rights at work. Congress recently passed the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act which went into effect on December 29, 2022, and expands the employment protections previously afforded to nursing employees through the Break Time for Nursing Mothers Law (Break Time Law). Despite American Academy of … Continue Reading

A Reminder of Employer Obligations to Service Members

By Phillip Harris and Emily Ayvazian on September 6, 2022 Posted in Employee Handbooks & Policies, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation, Employment Litigation

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision serves as a reminder that employers must not overlook their obligations to reemploy returning service members and accommodate service-related disabilities. The decision concerned whether a state could invoke sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine which prohibits a government from being sued without its consent, to avoid liability under the Uniformed … Continue Reading

Service and Support Animals: What Businesses Can and Cannot Do

By Emily Ayvazian on July 18, 2022 Posted in Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Employment Discrimination Harassment & Retaliation

We have all seen it. The unruly lap dog brought into a restaurant, yipping away, or the big dog running through a store dragging along its owner who, of course, claims it is a “service animal,” even though it clearly is not. Many individuals need and have legitimate service animals, while others need and have … Continue Reading