If your employee sues you for discrimination, they don’t get to look at how the decision-makers treated everyone else, do they? Well, in Cruz vs. US Homeland Security, the D.C. Court of Appeals says yes they do. Although the district court granted summary judgment and did not let the plaintiff take discovery on how her bosses treated others, the court of appeals said not so fast. The ruling allows plaintiffs potentially to cast a…

The era of #MeToo has caused employers to hyper-focus on harassment claims. They have fine-tuned their policies, investigated claims more carefully, and acted swiftly and sometimes even in a draconian fashion upon finding any level of harassment. In most situations, these actions can effectively eliminate an employee’s viable claims of harassment. We are seeing this repeatedly in EEOC charges and lawsuits. The harassment claim is essentially DOA because the employer did a great job and took all the right…

When is sleeping working? According to a recent DOL Opinion Letter, probably not when it occurs off duty in a sleeper berth of an over-the-road truck. A trucker’s job is to haul a load from Point A to Point B, which often takes several days. During that time, the trucker, by law, has to rest. If that trucker rests in a sleeper berth in the cab of the truck, do you have to pay…

In May, JPMorgan Chase entered into a class action settlement regarding allegations that it treated male employees differently than female employees under the company’s parental leave program. On its face, the terms of the program appeared to be gender-neutral: 16 weeks of paid leave for “primary caregivers” and two weeks of paid leave for “secondary caregivers.” It is important to note that this is PAID leave—not unpaid leave as contemplated under the FMLA and not interfering with FMLA…

Alabama passed the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act which will go into effect in August, making Alabama the 49th state to enact legislation designed to fight wage inequality. While Alabama employers have been subject to federal laws regarding wage equality for years, Alabama workers may now also sue for wage discrepancies under Alabama law and in Alabama courts. Here are five things that you need to know about the Clarke-Figures Act. Equal Pay for Equal Work.…

We’ve posted on this topic several times before but the battle between independent contractors and employees continues. Here’s a brief refresher on the basics of why proper classification of employees as independent contractors or employees matters: Employees (not independent contractors) are entitled to workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits. Employees (not independent contractors) have taxes withheld on payroll. Independent contractors are subject to self-employment taxes. Federal and state employment discrimination laws cover employees, not independent contractors.…