Perspectives on Labor, Employment & OSHA: Litigation

Urban Outfitters, Inc. recently settled an overtime wage and hour class action brought by one of its employees who alleged that he and others similarly situated were forced to work overtime without appropriate pay and that the Company violated a number of other California labor laws.

In the past five years, few topics have dominated litigation over employment agreements quite as significantly as class-action arbitration waivers.

On December 30, 2014, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R), signed Public Law 414 into law, which excludes college athletes from the definition of “public employees” who are entitled to collectively bargain in Michigan.

in a radical departure from settled National Labor Relations Board (the Board or NLRB) precedent, a sharply divided NLRB ruled in a 3-2 decision that a policy limiting the use of an employee’s work email to work-only purposes violated the National Labor Relations Act (the Act or NLRA).

The D.C. Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia’s highest court, recently vacated and remanded a trial court’s decision granting judgment as a matter of law to the District after the trial court concluded that the Plaintiff had failed to present a prima facie case of retaliation.

In January 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) decided arbitration clauses in employment contracts that require individual arbitration, rather than class-wide or collective actions, violate Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (the NLRA or Act).

A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) administrative law judge (ALJ) found that two employees of a nonprofit youth center engaged in concerted activity when they discussed their workplace concerns via Facebook.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a lower court’s conclusion that a doctor in a service corporation was actually an employer, and thus could not bring a claim under federal discrimination statutes based upon her termination.

In the City’s motion for summary judgment, it argued that Stragapede was not disabled under the ADA and that the City did not consider him to be disabled.

Court Holds That Document Reviewers “Practiced Law” for Purposes of the FLSA

Following a trend, including a recent amendment in New York City reported here, on September 10, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation into law that will require most California employers to provide up to three paid sick days per year for employees.

The California Supreme Court has become the most recent legal body to weigh in on the issue of franchisor liability for franchisee employment actions.

On July 29, 2014, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), Richard Griffin, authorized NLRB Regional Directors to file unfair labor practice complaints against McDonald’s as an alleged “joint employer” alongside its local franchisees.

A 2014 bill protects NY unpaid interns from discrimination based on age, race, creed, color, origin, orientation, or military/domestic violence victim status.

On July 21, 2014, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order (the Order) prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors and agencies.

On July 14, 2014, the DC Council unanimously approved the Fair Criminal Record Screening Act (the Act) that bars private employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal conviction record until the employer has extended a conditional job offer.

In Lawson, the Court held that employees of a mutual fund, traditionally outside the coverage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), are nonetheless protected by its whistleblower provision.

The decisions in Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom were significant victories for employers, but the extent and consequences of these victories have yet to be seen.

The employment application process has become increasingly complex and a growing source of litigation for retailers and other employers.

In a relatively narrow ruling that may have far greater practical ramifications than constitutional ones, a unanimous US Supreme Court on Thursday struck down President Obama’s 2012 recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board).

Pending changes in Obama era federal overtime exemptions and minimum wage requirements could significantly affect how employers pay their employees.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that two uses of a racially offensive slur, directed against an employee by another employee were not sufficiently severe or pervasive as to change the terms and conditions of employment and thereby constitute unlawful discrimination.

Fourth Circuit Allows Hostile Work Environment Claim to Proceed Against Employer Based on Third-Party’s Actions.

Working conditions of interns have been the focus of a series of unpaid wage actions in New York City and elsewhere.

It is unlikely that any ruling by a Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ever sparked such nationwide commentary as that of Region 13 Regional Director Peter Sung Ohr in ruling that Northwestern University scholarship football players are “employees” of the University.