The Employment Brief | Employment Law | Kollman & Saucier, P.A.

Employee Who Fails to Return from Vacation Has No Claim of Discriminatory Termination

Kollman & Saucier

03/03/2014

In Andrews v. CBOCS West, Inc., No. 12-3399 (7th Cir. Feb. 14, 2014), the Seventh Circuit addressed an employer’s practice of automatically terminating an employee who did not return to work after taking paid vacation leave. The Court affirmed summary judgment for the employer on the employee’s claims of discrimination and retaliation under Title VII and ADEA, reasoning that the claims failed because the employee did not suffer an adverse...

Kollman & Saucier

02/28/2014

Wage & Hour

This is an issue near and dear to my heart (having just successfully obtained denials of Rule 23 and FLSA Collective Action certification motions ). Successful plaintiffs in FLSA actions are entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The amount, however, is within the trial court’s discretion. In deciding the amount, the court must calculate the lodestar, or the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation times a...

Kollman & Saucier

02/28/2014

Labor Law

Resident doctors work long hours caring for sick, vulnerable patients. Eighty hours a week or more is typical. During that time, under the supervision of an attending physician, they have major responsibilities—making medical decisions, treating patients and performing surgeries. The administration of one New York medical school and hospital, however, believed that residency is not a job at all. Rather, the school and hospital argued,...

Kollman & Saucier

02/19/2014

Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination, obesity

The trend on overweight, obese and other weight-afflicted individuals claiming some category of employment discrimination (almost always disability-based) continues to increase. There have been mixed results so far with the EEOC, not surprisingly, doing its part to ensure that the overweight individuals of America are considered disabled by one means or another. Thankfully, some of the courts that have been presented with the chance to dig into...

Kollman & Saucier

02/18/2014

Employment Discrimination, Sexual Harassment

Employers are very familiar with the legal requirement and legal advice to take prompt action to investigate and respond properly to complaints of workplace harassment. In a recent decision issued from the federal district court in Arizona last week, Safeway's prompt and effective handling of a teen-aged cashier's complaint of sexual harassment precluded a liability finding against the supermarket chain. In McCormack v. Safeway Stores, Inc., No....

Kollman & Saucier

02/14/2014

Wage & Hour

As promised in the State of the Union address, on February 12th, President Obama issued an Executive Order raising the minimum wage to $10.10 for federal contractors and sub-contractors. The Executive Order can be found here, and the accompanying fact sheet can be found here. Citing increased morale and productivity, and lower turnover and absenteeism, the Order will apply to all new covered contracts where the solicitation for the contract...

Kollman & Saucier

02/13/2014

Affordable Care Act

On Monday, the Obama administration delayed a significant portion of the employer mandate requirement of the Affordable Care Act. You may recall that employers with more than 50 employees were supposed to offer qualifying health insurance by 2014 or incur fines. At the request of the business community, that requirement was pushed back to 2015. On Monday, the Treasury Department postponed the deadline until 2016 for employers with between 50...

Darrell VanDeusen

02/01/2014

Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination

It was pretty clear under the ADA that a temporary impairment was not a covered “disability.” But that was before Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (the “ADAAA”) in 2008, expanding the scope of protection. Now, the Fourth Circuit has become the first appellate court to address the issue of “temporary impairment” under the ADAAA. Summers v. Altarum Inst., Corp., (4th Cir. January 23, 2014). Reversing...

Darrell VanDeusen

01/29/2014

Supreme Court Decisions, Wage & Hour

The issue of what constitutes “compensable time” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is, for most employers, not so difficult to figure out: you clock in, you work, you get paid. There are, however, some occupations where things are less clear. What if you have to put on a uniform (a police officer or fast food server)? Well, if you can put it on at home and drive to work, you do not get paid for “doffing and donning,” as it is...

Darrell VanDeusen

01/27/2014

FMLA

Employers who decide to fire an employee for a work rule violation usually feel pretty secure in the decision when the employee has admitted to the infraction. But it is important to remember that, in discrimination or retaliation cases, the real question is “how has the employer treated other employees in similar circumstances?” The need to focus on this “similarly situated” factor, as well as the possible “bad facts” in a case, was...

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Email Updates

Employee Who Fails to Return from Vacation Has No Claim of Discriminatory Termination

Maryland Court Awards Over $400,000 in Attorneys Fees in FLSA Case

NLRB Rules That Medical Residents Are Employees Eligible to Unionize

Scales (Of Justice) Tip In Favor Of Employer On Overweight Employee's ADA Claims

Prompt Handling Of Sex Harassment Complaint Keeps Safeway Safe

President Obama Increases Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors

ACA's Employer Mandate Delayed For Some Businesses

Fourth Circuit FindsTemporary Impairment Covered by ADAAA

Supreme Court Unanimous: Steel Workers Were Just Changing Clothes

FMLA Case Goes to Jury, Says Tenth Circuit

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