The Labor & Employment Blog is a forum for practitioners and Bloomberg BNA editors to share ideas, raise issues, and network with colleagues.
May 7, 2013
by Lydell C. Bridgeford
David S. Fortney, a management lawyer with Fortney & Scott in Washington, D.C., talks about the pros and cons of commencing litigation against the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs because of a compliance review.
May 3, 2013
by Patrick Dorrian
As the Supreme Court considers yet another retaliation case, companies should again be reminded of the continued prevalence—and relative success—of such claims by employees, as well as their obligation as employers to protect workers against the retaliatory acts of managers.
April 19, 2013
Is it the intent of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to make it more difficult for managers and supervisors, than for rank-and-file employees, to prove protected activity?
April 8, 2013
Legal issues surrounding whether and when class claims may be arbitrated has only added to the longstanding fight between employers and employees over the mandatory arbitration of employment discrimination claims. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is the latest court to weigh in on the hot topic of class arbitration.
March 29, 2013
A recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey raises the question of whether the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to distinguish between disabled workers.
March 21, 2013
Everyone has heard the saying “Make sure you get it in writing.” While not the strict legal requirement, medical device manufacturer Teleflex may be wishing one of its executives had lived by those words in deciding that a subordinate employee had resigned.
February 18, 2013
by Amber McKinney
Let's take a look at this year's five hottest labor and employment law issues.
January 7, 2013
by Laura D. Francis
There are now four states that have made the decision not to issue driver’s licenses to deferred action for childhood arrivals beneficiaries--Arizona, Michigan, Nebraska, and Iowa--spawning lawsuits against Arizona and Michigan and a threat of similar legal action against Nebraska. But the states say they are hamstrung by the federal government and its insistence that DACA does not confer legal status.
January 4, 2013
It's been a good past few months for George Lucas, whose recent successes include a win by his company Lucasfilm in its bid to overturn a $1.27 million pregnancy discrimination judgment against the company. The case poses many interesting questions, including the relevance of an employer's expressed concern for a pregnant worker and her unborn child to the issue of discrimination.
December 18, 2012
R. Scott Oswald, a managing principal at The Employment Law Group, weighs in on legal developments affecting plaintiffs' attorneys who represent employees in Age Discrimination in Employment Act litigation.
Is the standard for determining whether an employee has engaged in protected activity under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act the same for in-house lawyers as it is for other employees?
November 2, 2012
Since the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act took effect Nov. 21, 2009, there hasn’t been as much litigation activity under the employment provisions of the statute as some may have anticipated. That could be about to change, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission leading the way.
October 19, 2012
Two weeks ago I discussed how the Supreme Court's decision in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. overturning certification of a class totaling more than one million workers did not spell the end of the case or employment class actions in general. A few days later, at a National Employment Lawyers Association conference I attended, the group of mostly plaintiffs' lawyers made clear that they do not view the Dukes decision to be the great loss that many supposed.
October 4, 2012
The last two weeks saw a rush of EEO activity, with a new ruling in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. case leading a group of class action decisions and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission closing its fiscal year with a flurry of new lawsuits.
September 4, 2012
Some of Alabama's H.B. 56 survives, while other parts are out the door after the Eleventh Circuit reaches a mixed decision on the state's controversial, enforcement-style immigration law. Notably, several of the law's employment-related provisions were deemed invalid--including one making it a crime for an undocumented immigrant to apply for, solicit, and perform work; one barring employers from deducting illegal aliens' compensation as a business expense on their state tax filings; and one allowing civil lawsuits where a U.S. worker is fired or not hired, but an illegal immigrant is employed.
July 13, 2012
A question I’ve frequently considered in deciding which cases to report on is what value, if any, do state court decisions hold for employment discrimination lawyers in other jurisdictions?
July 6, 2012
by Michael Rose
The Supreme Court wrapped up its term last week, with the release of the long-awaited decision on President Obama's health care overhaul law. But at the state level, the California Supreme Court this week released a decision that will have ramifications throughout the nation's most popular state.The issue? Whether cities are obligated to pay construction workers prevailing wages on municipal projects.
July 4, 2012
by Louis C. LaBrecque
Mind readers and bicycle building exercises likely will never again be featured at a federal training conference in the wake of the scandal involving the General Services Administration's 2010 Western Regional Conference, where a Las Vegas conference for approximately 300 GSA employees cost more than $822,000.
June 22, 2012
While the nation eagerly awaits the Supreme Court's decision any day now determining the fate of President Obama's health care overhaul law, other decisions are trickling out, including in one lower-profile case this week that represents a new element of what Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent, called "an ongoing, intense public debate" about collective bargaining and union membership in both the public and private sectors.
Public Sector Roundup: Will Sequestration Continue Into Fiscal Year 2014?
Congressional Roundup: Republican Comp Time Bill Gets a Vote
Labor Stats and Facts: Decertifications Are Down, but Unions Shouldn't Celebrate
EEO Roundup: Valuing Employment Discrimination Claims
Public Sector Roundup: Legislation to Require OPM to Track Union 'Official Time' Approved by House Panel