HR Lawyer's Blog

HR Question: Should I Be Paid For Travel Time?

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:23:46 -0600

We get a high volume of basic HR-related questions here at the HR Lawyer's Blog. So many, in fact, that we are sometimes not able to respond to each and ever one of them individually as we would like. So it occurred to us that it might be a good thing to post some of these questions and answer them publicly on the site. Thus we begin the first in what we hope will be a regular series titled "HR Questions." This week's question involves application of...

Federal Judge Delivers Fee Smack Down to EEOC

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:26:04 -0600

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been ordered to pay $4.5 million in attorney fees to a Cedar Rapids trucking firm that the agency sued more than two years ago for allegedly sexually harassing female drivers, a federal judge ruled earlier this week. The award comes from U.S. District Judge Linda Reade. She rejected claims by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that CRST Van Expedited Inc. subjected women to sexual harassment and improper touching when they were...

Supreme Court to Decide Whether Arbitrators May Decide Whether the Arbitration Clause from Which Their Authority Flows in a Case Is Unconscionable

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:31:39 -0600

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal in Rent-A-Car, West, Inc. v. Jackson. The question before the Court will be whether the district court is in all cases required to determine claims that an arbitration agreement subject to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) is unconscionable, even when the parties to the contract have clearly and unmistakably assigned this “gateway” issue to the arbitrator for decision. The pendulum in the U.S. Congress has...

Albertsons Pays $8.9 Million to Settle Race/National Origin and Retaliation Claims

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:50:58 -0600

Albertsons, LLC, a national grocery chain, will pay $8.9 million and furnish other relief to settle three employment discrimination lawsuits filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Oppor tunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged Albertsons with race, color, and national origin discrimination and retaliation at its Aurora, Colo., distribution center. The monetary relief will be distributed among 168 former and current employees. All three of the EEOC’s...

Franken Amendment Signed Into Law

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:37:52 -0600

We previously discussed the journey of the Franken Amendment through the halls of Congress. (The Amendment would prohibit the award of DOD funds to any Federal contractor that forces its employees or independent contractors to submit to pre-dispute binding arbitration of Title VII and sexual-assault tort claims.) This weekend, the amendment was signed into law by President Obama. This means that most military contractors will no longer be able to enforce mandatory...

Bill to Overturn Ashcroft v. Iqbal Introduced in the House

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:41:41 -0600

Late last month, Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY), along with original cosponsors Hank Johnson (D-GA), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), Michael Michaud (D-ME), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), introduced H.R. 4115, the Open Access to Courts Act of 2009. Although intended to accomplish the same purpose as the Notice Pleading Restoration Act of 2009, S. 1504, introduced in the Senate - to...

Franken Amendment Survives Conference and Passes House

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:23:18 -0600

One bill remains outstanding as a part of the final appropriations process for FY 2010 - the Department of Defense (DOD) appropriation - the bill to which the Franken Amendment was attached. The Franken Amendment would prohibit the award of DOD funds to any Federal contractor that forces its employees or independent contractors to submit to pre-dispute binding arbitration of Title VII and sexual-assault tort claims. On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, very significant progress on DOD...

EEOC Getting $20+ Million Dollars to Reduce Case Backlog

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:42:18 -0600

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is looking at getting an extra $23 million dollars to help tackle the growing backlog of cases at the at the agency. According to the National Law Journal, the 2010 omnibus appropriations bill, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 10 and by the Senate on Dec. 13, would funnel those additional millions to the EEOC to help the agency get a handle on more than 70,000 unresolved discrimination complaints. The article...

Supreme Court Looking at Taking Case to Resolve "Cat's Paw" Issue

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:39:32 -0600

The National Law Journal has a good article this morning by Robert Niccolini regarding the ongoing split in the circuits on the issue of so-called "cat's paw" theory of liability in employment discrimination cases. Under the "cat's paw" theory, an employer can be held liable for discrimination when a final decision-maker is influenced to take an adverse action against another worker by a lower-level employee with discriminatory...

First Civil Complaint Filed to Enforce Legal Arizona Worker's Act

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:47:08 -0600

County Attorney Andrew Thomas issued a press release this week announcing that his office has filed the state’s first employer sanctions case, a civil complaint against an employer accused of violating the Legal Arizona Worker’s Act. The civil action alleges that a Scottsdale company allegedly hired illegal labor deliberately by using a “subcontractor” which was in reality an employee who was not authorized to work in the United States. According to...

Employee Loses Job Over One-Word Vulgar Statement Online

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:29:19 -0600

Yet another example of an employee believing that his statements published for the world to see online are somehow anonymous or not subject to his employer's scrutiny. The Huffington Post this week has the story of a school employee lost his job after he posted a one-word vulgarity in the comments section of an online article at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The school employee posted an anonymous, one-word comment that referred, in vulgar terms, to a woman's anatomy on a...

NYTimes Article: Tough to be a Senior Looking for Work

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:00:17 -0600

The New York Times had a really excellent article last week about how difficult it is in this country for seniors who need a job. Nearly half a million workers 65 and older want to work but cannot find a job — more than five times the level early this decade and this group’s highest unemployment level since the Great Depression. The situation is made more dire because of numerous recent trends: many people over 65 have lost their jobs as seniority protections have weakened,...

Employers: Time to Update your EEO Postings

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:53:00 -0600

For the first time in a while, the EEOC has revised its required employer postings. This new version reflects current federal employment discrimination law, including two new laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, which is effective November 21, 2009. The revised poster also includes updates from the Department of Labor. There are several ways for employers to obtain the new required postings: Print the...

EEOC Using New and Improved ADA to Sue for Pregnancy Discrimination

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:12:04 -0600

Prior to Congress' recent amendments to the ADA, few if any lawyers would have given serious consideration to using the ADA as an avenue to sue for a pregnancy-related condition instead of bringing a traditional pregnancy discrimination claim pursuant to Title VII. The fact that the EEOC has recently filed a lawsuit seeking to do just that speaks volumes about the how much stronger the ADA is perceived to be by practitioners following the recent amendments. The EEOC’s...

Four Tips to Help You Stay Sane on Your Job Hunt

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:00:27 -0600

Writer Anya Weber has a good article out on how to stay sane while searching for a job in this terrible job market: "I’ve applied for 70 jobs over the last five months, and honestly, it’s been kind of a nightmare. The hardest part for me has been maintaining my cheerful attitude. In that spirit, here are a few tricks that seem to be helping me land interviews and (just as important) feel like I’m approaching my job safari with style, grace, and finesse,...

EEOC Files Class National Origin Harassment Suit Against Hilton Hotel

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:23:10 -0600

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit last Friday against Fireside West, LLC, doing business as the Hilton in Lisle/Naperville, Ill., charging that the hotel violated Title VII by subjecting its Hispanic employees to a hostile work environment. The EEOC’s complaint said that the hotel subjected Hispanic employees to frequent ethnic slurs from the hotel’s executive chef. The EEOC’s lawsuit, in U.S. District Court in Chicago (Civil Action...

EEOC Sues AT&T For Disability Discrimination

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:38:11 -0600

AT&T Services, Inc., doing business as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, L.P. (AT&T), a major telephone company, violated federal law by refusing to hire an applicant simply because he is an insulin-dependent diabetic, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed last week. According to the EEOC’s suit, AT&T violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to hire an applicant as a cable splicer technician in Austin...

COBRA Health Insurance Subsidies for Recently Terminated Employees

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:29:23 -0600

Many employers and employees appear to still be unaware of the temporary COBRA premium reduction passed by Congress. Here is some background: As a part of the stimulus package, which was enacted as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) temporarily reduces the premium for COBRA coverage for eligible individuals. COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) allows certain people to extend employer-provided group health coverage, if they would otherwise...

Happy Labor Day!

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:02:42 -0600

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -- Abraham Lincoln

Ted Kennedy - Dead at Age 77

chris@themckinneylawfirm.com (Christopher McKinney) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:10:02 -0600

The "Lion of the Senate" and long-time champion of American workers died late Tuesday night after a battle with brain cancer. Kennedy was a strong advocate for equal rights and workers' rights in the Senate for more than 45 years. His influence on, among other things, workplace civil rights issues will be missed. Rest in Peace. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Links for 2008-05-22 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Links for 2008-05-21 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 PDT

E-Mail: Pick Up The Phone « Marketing Integrity

Links for 2007-08-17 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:00:00 PDT

Links for 2007-04-15 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:00:00 PDT

Links for 2007-02-19 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:00:00 PST

Links for 2007-02-18 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:00:00 PST

Links for 2007-01-21 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 PST

Supreme Court will decide ERISA fiduciary case. - Ross' Employment Law Blog