Now more than ever, pay and promotion issues are tremendously important to employers. Fair pay and equal work opportunities to all employees, regardless of gender, race, national origin or any other protected characteristic, is a top priority of the new administration. Signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the statute of limitations for filing alleged discriminatory pay and promotion claims, was President Obama’s first legislative act as President. Recent events in Congress, including the introduction of additional legislation aimed at ensuring equal pay and advancement opportunities, paired with aggressive regulatory initiatives, are strong signals that the question is not “if” pay and promotion discrimination claims will rise, but when and how high. Our attorneys are fully prepared to help employers maneuver through the special challenges these cases present.
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California employers should take note that this week, the California Supreme Court limited benefits offered under California's kin care laws and held that kin care benefits do not apply to uncapped sick leave plans.
Continue Reading...In another case in which better employer documentation could have made the difference, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed earlier this month a district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of employer Kmart. Based largely upon contradictory and unclear documentation, the court found that Kmart’s former employee, Susan Cutcher, presented sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable juror to find that Kmart terminated Ms. Cutcher in retaliation for taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Continue Reading...Companies doing business in California should note that, on November 23, 2009, the Chief Counsel of the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) issued an Opinion Letter on behalf of Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet, in which the DLSE modified its position on the issue of making deductions from vacation and sick leave balances accrued by exempt employees for the purpose of covering partial-day absences. The Opinion Letter brings California law more in line with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act regarding the “salary basis test” and deductions from exempt employee paid time-off accounts for partial-day absences.
Continue Reading...The EEOC reported that workplace discrimination charges reached near-record highs in 2009. According to the EEOC, there were 93,277 charges filed in fiscal year 2009 -- the second-highest level in its history.
Continue Reading...A recent decision from the California Supreme Court has provided a rare victory for companies with employees in that state. In Schachter v. Citigroup, Inc., the Court ruled that a forfeiture provision in an employee incentive compensation plan did not violate California wage laws.
Continue Reading...The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which provides premium reductions for health benefits under COBRA, was recently amended by the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (2010 DOD Act). Under this new legislation, those involuntarily terminated through February 28, 2010, a change from the prior cut-off of December 31, 2009, are entitled to COBRA continuation assistance. Furthermore, the legislation extended the length of that assistance to 15 months from 9 months.
Continue Reading...A recent decision of the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia has cast doubt on the view that employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in work email accounts. Specifically, in Convertino v. United States Department of Justice, Judge Royce C. Lamberth held that an employee’s communications with his attorney, sent to and received on the employee’s work email account, were protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, even though the employer regularly accessed and saved such email communications.
Continue Reading...The Supreme Court last week agreed to decide whether a California police department violated the privacy rights of an employee police officer by reading sexually-explicit text messages on the officer’s employer-issued pager. The case, Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Company, is on appeal from the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that in certain circumstances a public employee has a reasonable expectation of privacy in personal text messages -- even when those messages are sent on a device owned and provided by the employer. The decision is directly at odds with current employee privacy law, which generally holds that employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in electronic communications on employer-provided electronic devices, and it adds to the list of headaches for employers adjusting to the exploding use of instant messaging in the workplace.
Continue Reading...What to do with an employee who tested positive for marijuana used to be an easy decision. That is not necessarily the case anymore.
Thirteen states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Some of these states require employers to accommodate the medical use of marijuana. Although use of marijuana remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act regardless of whether it is medically prescribed, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in October 2009 that federal agents will target users and distributors of marijuana only when they violate both federal and state laws. In addition, employers may have to consider whether they must allow employees to use medical marijuana as a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). These developments have caused employers to re-examine their “zero tolerance” policies with regard to drug use by employees.
Continue Reading...In the past two months, both the House and Senate have proposed legislation that would extend the COBRA subsidy for health insurance created by the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The ARRA subsidy will begin to expire on December 1, 2009 without government action. As the subsidy expires, unemployed Americans receiving the subsidy will see their COBRA premiums increase from 35% to 100% of the premium cost.
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