Arbitration provisions in employment contracts are not unusual. So when GrubHub, a fast-food delivery service, was sued by drivers for violating wage laws it filed a motion to enforce the arbitration clause in its service...more
10/3/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Misclassification ,
Service Contracts ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour
The Trump administration is looking to stiffen the criteria for borrowers to obtain forgiveness of their student loans based on fraud. If enacted, this higher criteria would mark a significant shift for students who seek...more
Could the Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Education (DOE) possibly merge in the near future? President Trump thinks so and recently announced his desire to combine the two departments into a single federal agency...more
7/10/2018
/ Agency Consolidation ,
Class Action ,
Colleges ,
Department of Education ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employees ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Students ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
Does your arbitration agreement allow you to recover attorneys’ fees if the employee rebels against arbitration and you have to compel it? Maybe it should. In Aralar v. Scott McRea Automotive Group, a court in Florida...more
Apparently if you are doing the Lord’s work and seek only treasures in heaven, the Fair Labor Standards Act will not guarantee that you receive an earthly reward as well. In a significant ruling that impacts religious...more
4/20/2018
/ Appeals ,
Covered Employer ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Wage ,
Religious Institutions ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Reversal ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Volunteers ,
Wage and Hour
Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require you to allow telecommuting? If the employee’s job, like most jobs, involves attendance and teamwork as essential functions, the answer is likely no. However, more and...more
An attorney representing his employer-client calls Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to inquire about the plaintiff’s immigration status. Is that potentially retaliation under the employment laws? If it is, can the...more
If your company has a family leave policy that goes beyond the legal requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), does that policy need to apply to all employee levels equally? No. But as Starbucks is currently...more
10/19/2017
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Retail Market ,
Retailers ,
Starbucks ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
Are you entitled to FLSA coverage if you are doing the Lord’s work? In March 2017, a federal district court in Ohio answered “yes” and awarded almost $400,000 to unpaid employees/volunteers of a church restaurant....more
Several U.S. Senators have introduced legislation for a Military Consumer Enforcement Act that would seek to empower the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to oversee and enforce compliance with the Servicemember...more
Joining two other circuit courts, the 6th Circuit concluded that employers cannot take advantage of class action and collective action waivers as part of employment arbitration agreements....more
Employers– the chances that you could receive a visit from immigration officers have increased. Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted “raids” at eight Asian restaurants in Mississippi—in...more
President-elect Trump’s election injects uncertainty into the Supreme Court’s makeup and its future rulings, including for employment-related cases. Because the Senate has not held confirmation hearings on Merrick Garland,...more
1/23/2017
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Age Discrimination ,
Appeals ,
Discovery ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Judicial Appointments ,
McLane Co. v EEOC ,
Motions to Quash ,
Physical Work Test ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Standard of Review ,
Subpoenas ,
Supreme Court Justices ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
Unduly Burdensome
As expected, student loans were a major issue in 2016, as the presidential election brought the issue to the forefront and regulatory scrutiny continued to rise. 2017 is now upon us, and the CFPB wasted no time getting the...more
When you can’t reasonably accommodate a disabled employee in the current position, do you have to give the employee a vacant position or can you follow your usual, competitive process? In EEOC v. St. Joseph’s Hospital, Inc.,...more
In this final post in a three-part series on what employers can expect from the new Trump administration, we consider possible Supreme Court nominees and future rulings affecting labor and employment law.
Judicial...more
Now that the election is over, many clients and friends are asking what labor and employment law might look like under the soon to be President Trump. Of course, no one can predict exactly what will happen in the coming term....more
11/22/2016
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Arbitration ,
Blacklist ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
DACA ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
E-Verify ,
Employee Benefits ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Vacancies Reform Act ,
Form I-9 ,
Gender Identity ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Reform ,
Joint Employers ,
Judicial Appointments ,
Labor Law Violations ,
LGBTQ ,
Marriage Equality ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Obama Administration ,
OSHA ,
Parental Leave ,
Persuader Rules ,
Protected Class ,
Restroom Legislation ,
Right of First Refusal ,
Same-Sex Marriage ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sick Leave ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
USCIS
An employee goes on television and maligns his bosses for a new company policy with half-truths—and his bosses fire him for disloyalty. Sounds justified, right? Wrong. A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision...more
9/27/2016
/ Appeals ,
AT&T ,
Corporate Counsel ,
DirectTV ,
Grievance Process ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Disputes ,
News Stories ,
NLRB ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Reputational Injury ,
Subjective Standard ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Wrongful Termination
As an update to last week’s blog post [Mark Your Calendar! Deadline on New OSHA Recordkeeping Rule is Around the Corner], the initial deadline to comply with OSHA’s new anti-retaliation provisions has been pushed back from...more
Employers should note the August 10, 2016, deadline for compliance with the anti-retaliation provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) new electronic recordkeeping and reporting rules. Other...more
Lenders and servicers seeking to comply with the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA) who depend on the commonly used Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) database have a little more comfort now on the accuracy of their...more
Employers evaluating ADA reasonable accommodation requests often must decide whether they have to provide extended light duty for an injured employee. In Frazier-White v. Gee, the Eleventh Circuit recently provided helpful...more
In the eyes of at least one Federal court, loan underwriting is not mechanical; it requires discretion and independent judgment. That point was a key factor in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent affirmance in Lutz v....more
If a supervisor engages in OSHA-violating conduct alongside a subordinate, is the company liable? The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) decision answering that...more
The District of Columbia is proposing a drastic expansion of paid family leave which may serve as a harbinger of similar provisions in other jurisdictions. The law before the D.C. City Council would provide 16 weeks of fully...more