Texas Employment Law Blog

Texas Leads The Nation In EEOC Charge Filings

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:42:29 -0600

This blog's humble author is quoted in a Law360 story today about the dubious distinction Texas has as the state responsible for more EEOC Charge filings than any other state: "More federal workplace discrimination charges were filed in Texas than in any other state in 2011, with 10 percent of all charges nationwide lodged there, according to state-by-state data released by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday. The EEOC received a record 99,947 charges of...

Texas Roadhouse Settles Wage and Hours Lawsuit

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:53:36 -0600

A group of wait staff employees recently filed a lawsuit against Texas Roadhouse, Inc., alleging that it had violated Massachusetts Tips Law and Massachusetts Minimum Wage Law. Ultimately, Texas Roadhouse agreed to settle the putative class action suit for $5 million. Under Massachusetts Tips Law, only wait staff employees, service employees, or service bartenders are permitted to participate in a tip pool when the tips are used to fulfill minimum wage requirements. Massachusetts law...

Drug Company to Pay $99 Million Dollars to Settle Overtime Lawsuit

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:42:49 -0600

Pharmaceuticals corporation Novartis has recently settled a class action lawsuit brought by current and former sales representatives for $99 million dollars. Read the entire story at our dedicated Overtime Law Blog.

Houston Attorney Sues Firm For Sexual Harassment, Retaliation

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:03:34 -0600

Houston appellate lawyer Ruth Piller filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against her former employer, Houston's Hays, McConn, Rice & Pickering, where she worked for nine years. In the EEOC complaint, Piller alleges the firm discriminated against her on the basis of her gender and her neurological disorder-related disability; subjected her to a "sexually hostile work environment"; and retaliated against her. Specifically, Piller alleges the firm...

Jury awards woman $870,000 in sex harassment case

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:06:21 -0600

According to a report in the Sioux City journal, a federal jury in Sioux City has awarded a woman nearly $900,000 for sexual harassment and retaliation by her former employer. Following a 7-day trial, Jurors on Wednesday found that Mindy Gilster had been sexually harassed by her supervisor and was subjected to retaliation as a result of filing complaints and her lawsuit against her employer. Gilster alleged that her supervisor harassed her by making inappropriate comments about...

Lawsuit Filing: Woman fired after donating kidney to her boss

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:53:01 -0600

CBS News reports that we may have "a new leader in the Boss From Hell Derby." A Long Island woman has filed papers claiming she was fired after donating a kidney for her boss. Last August, according to papers filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights, Deborah Stevens was working as an assistant to an executive at the Atlantic Automotive Group, which owns and operates car dealerships on Long Island. Her boss, Jaqueline Brucia, needed a new kidney. You can...

Texas jobless rate fell to 7 percent in March

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:42:44 -0600

Texas' unemployment rate dipped to 7 percent in March as hotels and restaurants increased hiring. The Texas Workforce Commission announced Friday that the state added 10,900 jobs in March. A downward revision in the number of jobs created in February, though, boosted March's results. The state originally reported payrolls grew by 27,900 jobs in February, but now says a net 19,900 jobs were created — a reduction of 8,000 jobs. Read More

Fifth Circuit Throws Out Arbitration Requirement in FLSA Overtime Case

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:01:16 -0600

Earlier this year the Fifth Circuit issued an important decision on the issue of whether an arbitration agreement that a single party can retroactively modify or terminate is illusory and invalid in Carey v. 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc. A unanimous court allowed a proposed overtime class action against 24 Hour Fitness USA Inc. to go forward, holding that such an agreement is indeed invalid and, therefore, unenforceable. Click through to read the entire article and see the opinion.

Big Mistake for Employers to Demand Employees' Facebook Passwords

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:04:15 -0600

Last week Facebook issued a statement stating that they have seen an increasing number of employers attempting to force their way onto employees' Facebook accounts by demanding employees turn over their passwords as a condition of employment. The company's Chief Privacy Officer, Erin Egan, issued the statement: In recent months, we've seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people's Facebook profiles or private...

EEOC Issues Revised Publications on Employment of Veterans with Disabilities

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:09:59 -0600

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued two revised publications addressing veterans with disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Both documents are available on the agency’s website at www.eeoc.gov. The revised guides reflect changes to the law stemming from the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which make it easier for veterans with a wide range of impairments – including those that are often not well understood -- such as traumatic...

Verdict Report: $168 Million For a Single Plaintiff Harassment Case

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:50:27 -0600

This week a former physician assistant in the cardiac unit of a Sacramento hospital was awarded $168 million in damages for workplace harassment. The report is in the Los Angeles Times. The verdict is believed to be a record amount in the US for any single worker. The plaintiff, Ani Chopourian, filed at least 18 complaints over two years before getting fired. A few examples of the defendant's conduct: One surgeon's way of saying good morning was to declare, "I'm horny"...

Houston Judge: "[F]iring someone because of lactation or breast-pumping is not sex discrimination."

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:42:11 -0600

A federal judge in Houston has the employment law community up in arms over his ruling that “firing someone because of lactation or breast-pumping is not sex discrimination.” The ruling in EEOC v. Houston Funding seems to fly in the face of the obvious fact that treating a woman different than men due to concerns about lactation is clearly discriminating on the basis of sex. The Court, apparently not recognizing this obvious fact, stated its opinion...

Black History Month: "Letter from Jourdan Anderson to His Former Master"

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:12:40 -0600

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865 To My Old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee Sir: I got your letter and was glad to find you had not forgotten Jourdan, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Col. Martin's to...

The Origins of Black History Month

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:24:05 -0600

February is Black History Month. I thought it would be appropriate to incorporate a post or two a week on the topic. A sensible place to start seemed to be with a discussion of how Black History Month came to be. So. . . do you know who Carter Woodson is? Click through to find out. Black History Month was begun as Negro History Week by historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926. His goal was to educate the American people about African-American history, focusing on African...

NLRB Holds Against Mandatory Arbitration in Employee Class Action Cases

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:10:04 -0600

Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") issued a ruling that the National Labor Relations Act prohibits mandatory arbitration policies forcing employees to give up their rights to participate in class action lawsuits over workplace conditions. The decision in D.R. Horton, Inc., 357 N.L.R.B. No. 184 notes as a jumping off point that the Board and the courts have previously held that Section 7 protects the right of employees to join together to pursue workplace...

Martin Luther King, Jr.

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:29:24 -0600

"This is not a black holiday; it is a people's holiday," -- Coretta Scott King, Nov. 2, 1983. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision...

2012 Employment Law Predictions

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:49:20 -0600

Employment Lawyer Daniel Scwhartz has a piece out this week in the Connecticut Law Tribune titled "What Does Magic 8-Ball Think About 2012?" Daniel discusses many expected 2012 employment law developments both nationally and in his home state, including expected Supreme Court decisions. He is keeping his eye on: Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp, in which the court will decide the scope of the “outside sales” exemption under the Fair Labor...

Department of Labor Proposes Rule Extending Overtime Protection to In-Home Health Care Workers

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:06:03 -0600

Though many of the people they care for wouldn't know it, the roughly two million home care aides who tend to the elderly and disabled don’t enjoy the basic protections of most American workers, such as a guaranteed minimum wage and time-and-a-half for overtime. Such workers are also not paid for the time they spend in the car driving from client to client. But a new federal rule could change that, boosting the pay for such workers. Congress extended FLSA coverage to "domestic service"...

Medal of Honor Winner Brings Suit in San Antonio for Defamation by Employer

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:24:17 -0600

Patrick Danner of the Express News is covering this story involving a Medal of Honor winner who has brought suit against his former employer, alleging the employer defamed him and interfered with his ability to seek gainful employment. A lawsuit brought by a U.S. Marine awarded the Medal of Honor against his former employer underscores the treacherous ground companies must navigate if they reveal too much about the circumstances surrounding an ex-employee's employment...

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case On Scope of FLSA Outside Sales Exemption

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:10:29 -0600

If your employer has categorized you as an "outside sales" rep and you are, therefore, not entitled to overtime pay, then this is a case you will want to be following. The U.S. Supreme Court, ("SCOTUS") has agreed to hear Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham, to decide whether outside pharmaceutical reps are exempt from the overtime requirements of the FLSA. Specifically, the Court has taken the case to decide the following issues: Whether deference is...