Friday, September 9, 2016
WIRTW #429 (the "top 10" edition)
Blame it on the Labor Day holiday and the resulting short work week, but the labor and employment news has been a bit scarce this week. So, instead of my usual categorical breakdown of the week’s best posts, I am listing them as a (sort of) top 10.
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Thursday, September 8, 2016
Free Speech, Social Media, and Your Job
One of the biggest misconceptions that employees hold is that the First Amendment grants them free speech rights in a private workplace. Quite to the contrary, the First Amendment right to free speech grants private-sector employees zero constitutional rights or protections.
Today, I bring you a guest post by Ellen Gipko of HubShout, which takes a deep look at this important issue, with a special focus on online speech and social media.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Fox Settles Sexual Harassment Suit with Gretchen Carlson
What do you get when you add a high profile sexual harassment suit, a highly compensated employee, and a well known target?
$20 million.
That is the number that Gretchen Carlson is receiving in settlement of her sexual harassment lawsuit against her former boss, deposed Fox News chief Roger Ailes.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Associational disability discrimination claims are rare, yet dangerous
I have been blessed with employers that are sympathetic to the fact that my son was born with some life-long medical issues. I’ve never had an issue taking time for a doctor’s appointment, or an unexpected illness, or the three weeks he spent inpatient at the Cleveland Clinic five (very) long years ago.
Some employees aren’t so lucky.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, September 2, 2016
WIRTW #428 (the “science is fun” edition)
I never thought I’d be the parent of private school kids. I am a proud survivor of the School District of Philadelphia, and always assumed that my kids would also attend public school. Then we found Lake Ridge Academy. Without sounding like too much of an advertisement for the school, it was the best decision and investment we made for our family.
Case in point — the fifth grade starts every school year with an overnight science trip to Stone Lab, an Ohio State teaching and research lab on Lake Erie. They study marine life, fish (and dissect fish), otherwise explore nature, and bond. Norah reports that she’s been looking forward to the experience since, as a kindergartener five years ago, she saw the fifth graders leaving with their overnight bags. By the looks of things, she’s not disappointed with the experience.
— LS Technology (@LRATechnology) September 1, 2016
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, September 1, 2016
The ADA and prescription meds: what you need to know
Last week, the EEOC announced that it had sued an Arizona car dealership for disability discrimination after it rescinded a job offer when a pre-employment drug test revealed a prescription drug used to treat a disability.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Did the NLRB do more harm than good by permitting teaching and research assistants to organize?
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Tuesday, August 30, 2016
What employers can learn from EEOC's new Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation
Yesterday, the EEOC published its final Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues. It’s the agency’s first formal guidance on this issue since 1998, and was long overdue. After all, according to EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang, “Retaliation is asserted in nearly 45 percent of all charges we receive and is the most frequently alleged basis of discrimination.” She adds, “The examples and promising practices included in the guidance are aimed at assisting all employers reduce the likelihood of retaliation.”
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, August 29, 2016
An anniversary love story
Thirteen years ago today I married my best friend. I’m happy to report that the thunderstorms that rocked Cleveland on August 29, 2003, were not of the foreshadowing kind. It hasn’t been perfect. No marriage is. But every day is better because I get to experience it holding Colleen’s hand. And that makes us very, very lucky.
So, I thought I’d re-run a post from four years ago today. Enjoy.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, August 26, 2016
WIRTW #427 (the “treat me like your mother” edition)
Someday I am going to convert this legal blog into a full-time dad/music blog. Until then, you get my semi-regular kids/musical posts. Like today’s.
Here’s what I read this week:
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Thursday, August 25, 2016
OSHA's new Whistleblower Investigations Manual creates a huge burden for employers
Image via Lifehack.org http://goo.gl/sn/VO1H |
For most of those OSHA-enforced anti-retaliation statutes, OSHA has made employers’ anti-retaliation compliance a whole lot more difficult.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2016
A wage/hour primer for employers with tipped employees
Employment Law 360 is reporting that a waitress is suing Walt Disney World for improperly taking a “tip credit” and paying her less than the minimum wage even though she spent significant time performing non-tipped work.
That story got me thinking that in the nine-plus years of this blog, I’ve never discussed how the FLSA impacts tipped employees. If you employ tipped workers, today is your lucky day.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Did the 7th Circuit finally kill McDonnell Douglas?
If you are an employment lawyer, the words “McDonnell Douglas” will bring a sentimental tear to your eye.
For the unfamiliar, the McDonnell Douglas is an evidentiary framework used in discrimination cases, which lack direct evidence of discrimination, to determine whether an employee’s claim should survive summary judgment and proceed to trial. It first asks whether the plaintiff can establish a prima facie case of discrimination—(i) s/he belongs to a protected class; (ii) s/he was qualified for the position; (iii) though qualified, s/he suffered some adverse action; and (iv) the employer treated similarly situated people outside of his/her protected class differently. If the plaintiff satisfies this minimal showing, the burden shifts to the employer to articulate a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for the adverse action. Once the employer makes this articulation, the burden shifts again, back to the plaintiff to show that the employer’s reason is a pretext for discrimination.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, August 22, 2016
Federal court's rejection of LGBT discrimination claim on religious grounds has scary implications
Last week, a Michigan federal judge rejected the EEOC’s claim that Title VII covers transgender status or gender identity as protected classes.
In EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes (E.D. Mich. 8/18/16) [pdf], the agency pursued a sex-discrimination claim on behalf of the Funeral Home’s former funeral director, Stephens, who is transgender and transitioning from male to female. The EEOC claimed that the Funeral Home “fired Stephens because Stephens is transgender, because of Stephens’s transition from male to female, and/or because Stephens did not conform to [the Funeral Home’s] sex- or gender-based preferences, expectations, or stereotypes.”
The court rejected that claim on several grounds, including the Funeral Homes’s religious beliefs as protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This basis for the holding greatly troubles me.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, August 19, 2016
WIRTW #426 (the “back to school” edition)
Here’s what I read this week:
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Thursday, August 18, 2016
Hard to believe that overt pregnancy discrimination still exists … yet it does
Pregnancy discrimination has been unlawful under federal law since 1978. You’d think by now employers would have learned their lesson—that women should not have to choose between being pregnant and being employed. Yet, this recent story from the Washington Business Journal suggests otherwise.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2016
DOL wage/hour agreement with Subway raises legitimate joint-employer concerns
The Department of Labor recently unveiled an agreement with Subway through which the fast-food giant has agreed to assist its franchisees in their wage-and-hour compliance.
the agreement builds upon the division’s ongoing work to provide technical assistance and training to Subway’s franchisees. It also provides an avenue for information-sharing where we will provide data about our concluded investigations with Subway, and they will share their own data with us, generating creative problem solving and sparking new ideas to promote compliance. When circumstances warrant, the franchisor will remind franchisees of the Wage and Hour Division’s authority to investigate their establishments and to examine records. It also specifies that Subway may exercise its business judgment in dealing with a franchisee’s status within the brand, based upon any history of Fair Labor Standards Act violations.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2016
When the Department of Labor can’t even figure out the FLSA…
According to Employment Law 360, the U.S. Department of Labor has agreed to pay $7 million to settle claims that it failed to pay overtime to thousands of its employees:
“This is the agency that goes around fining all the private employers for doing the same thing that it just ended up paying $7 million to make go away,” said the union’s attorney.…
AFGE’s collective action-type grievance had accused the DOL of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to compensate employees eligible under the statute for suffer or permit overtime. Amid the 10-year legal fight, workers who were classified as FLSA exempt were moved back to FLSA-eligible, the union said.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, August 15, 2016
ABA amends model professional conduct rules to prohibit discrimination. What took it so long?
Last week, during its annual meeting, the American Bar Association amended its model rules of professional conduct to incorporate employment discrimination into attorneys’ ethical mandates.
Model Rule 8.4 now reads as follows:
(g) It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law. This paragraph does not limit the ability of a lawyer to accept, decline or withdraw from a representation in accordance with Rule 1.16. This paragraph does not preclude legitimate advice or advocacy consistent with these Rules.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Friday, August 12, 2016
WIRTW #425 (the “tschüss” edition)
The Hymans did not take a vacation this summer. Instead, our vacation came to us.
Three years ago we hosted a foreign exchange student from Germany. Zarah entered our house as a stranger, and 10 months later left as our German daughter. Three weeks ago she and her sister, Alexa (German daughter number two) came for a visit. Today, they leave.
“Tschüss” is the German equivalent of “bye.” It’s light and informal. And, so, today, I say “tschüss” to Zarah and Alexa, because we know we will see them again soon (and even sooner on Skype), and danke to their parents (and our good friends), Michael and Karen, for sharing them with us for a few wonderful weeks.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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