Labor & Employment Law Legal Research & News
Labor & Employment Law
TOP STORY—States and employers reacting to stay of OSHA’s large employer vaccine ETS
It remains to be seen how OSHA will respond; it has not yet withdrawn the rulemaking. In the information void remaining in the wake of the Supreme Court’s January 13 stay pending review of OSHA’s large employer emergency temporary standard (ETS) requ...
In the last twelve years prior to the onset of the pandemic, remote work witnessed a 159 percent growth, and it is estimated that 36.2 million Americans will work from home by 2025, according to recent surveys. To say that COVID-19 has presented nume...
Beginning in May, most New York City employers will have to publicize salary ranges for every job posting for the whole world to see. In the City’s latest effort to combat gender and race-based pay inequity, the New York City Council passed a salary ...
The police officer presented evidence that the city regarded him suffering from a mental disability due to his PTSD diagnosis. Although a police officer who was terminated after he was diagnosed with PTSD can advance to trial on his ADA claim, a fede...
The record showed that an annual wage increase for the food and beverage employees was an established practice regularly expected by the employees. An employer violated § 8(a)(5) and (1) of the NLRA by not granting wage increases to its newly represe...
Although the appeals court dismissed other aspects of the parties’ appeals, it vacated certain provisions in the preliminary injunction against one of the employees. In a dispute over the alleged violation of restrictive covenants resulting from the ...
Though he testified that he did not believe the coworker was treated unfairly because of his race or nationality, he also stated that he thought the coworker was being targeted—and all the state’s anti-bias statute required was that he testified. A p...
The Bikini.com manager failed to show she engaged in any protected activity in support of her retaliation claim or that the CEO’s failure to more actively address the sexual harassment claims created a hostile environment for her. Granting summary ju...
Preliminary approval was granted for the proposed settlement in a class action involving 5,500 class members, although the court indicated problems with the 33 1/3% attorney fee provision and the $10,000 service award. A federal district court in Cal...
The FLSA did not permit the city to pay MHESCs an office rate for some hours and a standby rate for other hours because there was no difference between the work that they performed when the city paid the two different rates. Mental Health Emergency S...
A roundup of recent decisions involving wage and hour issues of interest to the labor and employment community. D. Alaska: Complaints about alleged illegal timekeeping did not constitute FLSA-protected conduct. An employer was denied its motion for s...
The infractions resulted from practices such as failing to pay overtime, paying straight time for overtime hours, excluding bonuses when calculating overtime pay, and employing an underage minor. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division has separately announ...
Comcast outsourced its customer service needs through Arise, allegedly misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than as employees in order to reduce labor costs, in violation of District of Columbia law. The Office of the Attorney Gen...
Labor & Employment Law
A collective-action waiver is not a waiver of any “right or claim” under the ADEA that triggers the requirements of 29 U.S.C. § 626(f)(1). Former employees of IBM who entered into severance agreements in which they agreed not to join any collective a...
The Standards Board is also continuing to consider adoption of a permanent standard for COVID-19. California's Second Readopted COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) is now in effectand will remain in place through April 14, 2022. In general, t...
The U.S. Supreme Court OSHA ruling that officially blocked President Biden's workplace vaccine mandate for most businesses means employers can move forward with solutions to consider in view of emerging variants and workplace protections. Now that th...
The employee admitted in his pleadings and deposition testimony that he was “unable to work” on the date he was discharged, and he failed to suggest any reasonable accommodation that would have allowed him to do so. A discharged employee who filed an...
Disability discrimination claims went forward, based on a fact dispute over whether the employer’s duty restrictions were reasonable or whether they were based on an incorrect perception that he suffered from syncope. A railroad employee’s disability...
The supervisor allegedly rubbed her breasts on his head, jumped into his lap, slapped his butt, and placed phone chargers down the back of his pants. A former vice president of business development, who alleged that despite his complaints to his empl...
Though the company owner told her after her daughter’s school closed, “No worries on kids. Totally covered,” two months later, he was “done with her absences and lack of commitment.” An employee who was fired a little over two months after her daught...
Rule 8 and the accompanying standards articulated by the Supreme Court in Twombly and Iqbal do not require a plaintiff to plead a prima facie case of employment discrimination. A Polish-American woman in her 50s, who alleged she was unlawfully discha...
Because the remedies under the WARN Act are equitable rather than legal in nature, there is no Seventh Amendment constitutional right to a jury trial. Former employees were not entitled to a jury trial for their WARN Act claim against their employer,...
The teacher copied and transferred thousands of files to her personal Google account, hundreds of which contained confidential student information that included individual education programs, physical therapy evaluations, and physical therapy progres...
The proposals, which result from recent controversies related to these businesses, seek independent audits of the companies’ racial equity practices. Thomas P. DiNapoli, State Comptroller of New York, along with the New York State Common Retirement F...
The week’s most insightful, intriguing, or entertaining blog posts from the labor and employment law community: HR Defense, Avoid Possible Tragedy In The Future By Preparing For Disasters And Emergencies Now , by Brittany Buccellato (Akerman LLP) The...
While the Teamsters claim that companies like XPO intentionally misclassify workers to deny them the right to organize, XPO says that contractors who want to be fulltime employees are free to apply for any number of open positions. In what the Intern...
The debate over student athlete compensation, largely focused on college sports, reaches the high school arena. The organizations responsible for administering high school sports in Florida have unlawfully conspired to deny student athletes the right...
The petition for certiorari calls for the Supreme Court to rectify a clear circuit split on whether ERISA preempts state and local play-or-pay provisions. The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) has petitioned the Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit ...
Labor & Employment Law
Because the appeals court lacked jurisdiction, the district court will continue to oversee the years’ long litigation concerning the high-profile labor dispute that led to a Port of Portland terminal closing to ocean-going cargo for more than a year....
Things aren't looking so good for the long-term health of the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act ("PAGA"). On top of the U.S. Supreme Court's granting review of a case challenging PAGA's anti-arbitration rule (as we reported here ) and a separa...
Companies with executive compensation arrangements should review their change in control triggers to determine if the definition of change in control therein has the intended result. Last year, a federal court considered whether a "change in control"...
Because the FAA empowers courts to appoint an arbitrator where an otherwise enforceable arbitration agreement lacks one, the fact that the agreement did not identify a neutral arbitrator or organization did not render it invalid. A valid agreement to...
Taken together, said the court, the employee presented sufficient evidence to defeat summary judgment on the issue of pretext. In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit revived the FEHA age discrimination claim of a Quest Diagnostics courier who w...
His failure-to-accommodate claim based on the denial of a requested prayer break failed, however, for lack of an adverse action. Denying summary judgment against the Title VII disparate treatment claims of a hospital staff pharmacist who alleged his ...
The court certified the question of whether in a state-law action for wrongful discharge, an employer may defend a termination solely for the reasons given in a discharge letter. The Ninth Circuit held that the disposition of a Charter Communications...
The only state not currently subject to the mandate is Texas. Health care workers in the 24 states where the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated CMS’ vaccine mandate must have their first shot by February 14 and be fully vaccinated by March 15, according t...
In separate developments, the EEOC settled three suits alleging disability discrimination and filed two new suits alleging sexual harassment and pay discrimination. The EEOC separately announced the settlement of disability discrimination allegations...
Should the Board abrogate the decision in Anderson Enterprises , where it overruled its earlier decision in February 2016 in Ralphs Grocery Company ? The National Labor Relations Board has invited parties and amici to file briefs on whether the Board...
The workplace safety agency issued citations to three businesses for failing to protect workers from COVID-19, workplace violence, and electrical and other safety hazards. OSHA has issued citations to three businesses for violating safety laws: One c...
Labor & Employment Law
The requests were consistent with business necessity because federal safety regulations required the railroad to inquire into employees’ use of controlled substances. Affirming a district court’s grant of summary judgment in an employer’s favor on a ...
Plans and issuers must cover OTC COVID-19 tests that meet the statutory criteria under the FFCRA and CARES Act, which now includes OTC tests obtained without an order or individualized clinical assessment by a health care provider. On December 2, 202...
One unpleasant aspect of managing employees is that from time to time, you have to handle people who, for reasons good or ill, don't have as tight a grip on their horses as they should at that moment I am still agog at the Antonio Brown situation sev...
Her allegations did not support a conclusion that her fever was disabling and she did not actually have COVID. A medical center employee who was fired upon her return from work after having been told not to report due to fever and COVID-19 exposure f...
The sheriff claimed he asked the officer to resign because he lost confidence in him based on how he handled two incidents, not because of his relationship with a white employee. Rejecting the assertion by a biracial sheriff’s captain that he was for...
Because the plain language of the parties’ CBA required that transportation be provided, it was arguable that providing a company vehicle to be driven by road-service employees satisfied BNSF’s obligations. The question of whether a railway employer ...
The court lacked jurisdiction because the plaintiffs’ claims were not ripe under Article III and failed the prudential component of the ripeness doctrine. The district court in California refused to provide a pre-enforcement review of California’s st...
A reasonable juror could find the statement that the employee was a thief—made before any investigation and to a resident of the apartment complex where the employee worked—was negligent or reckless. One defamation claim brought by an employee termin...
The employee was a highly paid individual whose duties came within the FLSA overtime pay exemption for “white collar” employees. The federal district court in Louisiana granted an employer’s motion for summary judgment against an employee’s claim his...
Due to their misrepresentations and violations of federal law, the prosecutors explained, two workers died and another was injured as a result of an explosion. Owners of Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services LLC (NRCS) were sentenced for willful violati...
A high school coach attempts to pit the free exercise clause against the establishment clause in a long-running dispute that has now landed squarely in front of the High Court. In an order list issued on Friday , the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to ...
Labor & Employment Law
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Bristol-Myers had no bearing on a district court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over the opt-ins because the employee’s suit was brought in federal court pursuant to the FLSA’s provisions governing collective action...
In this month’s Labor Pulse, Jim Castagnera warns readers to “brace for a real brouhaha.” This month, Dr. Castagnera considers upcoming ILWU negotiations in the context of the pandemic, recent gains by workers, concerns about the supply chain, and in...
There is an unlikely chance that the Sixth Circuit Court could determine that the rule is valid and breathe new life into it sometime in the coming weeks and months. The Supreme Court just blocked OSHA’s vaccine ETS from being enforced for the forese...
Given President Biden’s promise to be the “strongest labor President you have ever had,” employers should anticipate the Board either returning to Obama-era standards or adopting new standards that are even more labor friendly. As we previously repor...
She contends that male coaches and teams are treated better when it comes to scheduling time on the courts, pay, and contract length, among other things. Over objections, a federal district court in South Carolina adopted a magistrate’s report and re...
The employee alleged that she was taken to a small room by two male coworkers under a false pretense, the door was blocked, she was not allowed to leave for some time, and when she tried to call for help, one of the coworkers touched her breast and h...
According to the Court, ensuring that providers take steps to avoid transmitting a “dangerous virus to their patients is consistent with the fundamental principle of the medical profession: first, do no harm.” The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling 5-4, has ...
OSHA cited the employer after an employee pressure washing its boat dock fell off the dock and drowned, but the appeals court vacated the citation. An employer did not have actual knowledge that pressure washing its boat dock required the use of pers...
Employees booting up was their computers was akin to preparing a tool that must be used throughout the workday. Pre-shift time spent by employees of an applicant screening firm logging into the company’s computers and work programs was compensable un...
A roundup of recent decisions involving race discrimination claims of interest to the labor and employment law community. 11th Cir.: Pharmacist failed to show pretext on race, age discrimination claims. A Walmart pharmacist sued the company alleging ...
The agency also assessed nearly $50K in civil penalties. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has separately announced awards totaling combined monetary recovery of $502,953 in back wages and liquidated damages for 204 workers and an additional $49...
The agency’s continuing violation penalty for failure to abate will jump from $13,653 per day to $14,502 per day. The Department of Labor has published a final rule that adjusts for inflation the civil monetary penalties it assesses or enforces pursu...
Two workers died and others were put at risk in three separate instances, after their employers failed to follow required safety precautions and procedures. OSHA found safety violations following investigations in three cases. A federal helium enrich...
David Weil’s nomination for Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division and Javier Rodriguez’s nomination for Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training barely made it through the committee. On January 13, 2022, the Senate Health, Education, Lab...
“There’s a great reprioritization of work, rewards and careers under way, and it’s putting significant pressure on compensation programs for many employers.” Fueled by tight labor markets, U.S. employers are boosting their original salary increase pr...