News

Independently contracted delivery drivers in California sued for wages.  The Supreme Court of California rules that employers must show their worker are independent contractors not covered by California's wage order regulations.

The Court set forth the new test for hiring entities whose workers will be employees rather than contractors unless they can show the worker:

Target pays $3.7 million to settle suit over "neutral" employee criminal background checks that harm Black and Latino applicants.

Target’s policies mandated automatic rejection of applicants for certain misdemeanors and felonies like violence, theft and drug convictions in the past 7 years.  

The suit alleged Target's policy imported “the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in the criminal justice system into the employment process, [] multiplying the negative impact on African-American and Latino job applicants.” 

US District Court rules HR Director for Real Estate Firm can be personally liable for aiding Boss's sexual harassment. 

Plaintiff complained to HR Director in Colorado that her boss in Kauai required her to organize and attend marketing events where the Boss's wife and her scantily clad friends would engage in excessive drinking, inappropriate dancing, kissing, and groping with clients. She also claimed her Boss used these events to “pimp out” his own wife and then required her conceal an illicit affair between his wife and a rich married client.  

The Fresno County Office of Education's pay policy slots new hires at a salary level and step equal to five percent above the applicant's prior salary.

The high school math teacher in this case was earning $50,630 in Arizona. Fresno hired her at step one of level one on salary scale or $62,133.  She later discovered that male co-workers earned more and sued.  

The Ninth Circuit’s has long held that exemptions to overtime are to be narrowly construed.  The Supreme Court disagreed this month, holding that nothing in the Fair Labor Standards Act’s demands a narrow construction of those exemptions.

Reasoning that the FLSA contains “over two dozen” exemptions, the Supreme Court found that exemptions are as integral to the FLSA as its overtime and minimum wage laws.  Now, courts asked to enforce unpaid overtime claims will “have no license to give the exemption anything but a fair reading.”

Florida Fizzles on Fighting Fired Female Fire Fighter: City of Tampa extinguishes appeal of a federal judge’s order to re-hire a female firefighter it fired the day after she filed a pregnancy discrimination suit.

The firefighter had a long advocated for better treatment of women: writing emails, asking for new policies, and complaining in the media about the lack of female bathrooms, women being passed over for promotions, and sexual harassment.

Starting this month, employers in Maine cannot refuse to employ or otherwise penalize anyone 21 or older due to their “consuming marijuana outside the … employer’s … property.” 

Maine Voters approved recreational marijuana use on November 8, 2016, including retail sales and taxation.  The law they passed contained an  anti-discrimination provision, creating an entirely new protected class of pot users.  

Paid Sick Leave Continues to Spread: In a last minute push, the Maryland legislature overrode the Governor's veto last year of the Healthy Working Families Act, requiring Maryland businesses to provide covered employees with sick leave, starting February 11, 2018.

Maryland employers with 15 or more employees must provide paid sick leave and smaller employees must provide unpaid leave.  Employee counts use the average monthly employee count from the prior year, including full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers.

Holiday Gift to Employers: Yesterday the NLRB overruled use of the standard that found many employee handbook provisions and policies unlawful due to "interference" with employee rights.

The NLRB's has been ruling that employers (union & non-union ) violated the NLRA by having handbook policies that could be “reasonably construed” by an employee to prohibit or "chill" their exercise of NLRA-protected rights.  

Are you more likely to be sued for harassment ?  New report on the top industries for harassment lawsuits confirms what employment lawyers know from experience:

1. Restaurant and Accommodations: 
2. Retail
3. Manufacturing
4. Health Care and Social Assistance