Employment Laws - Page 94
This is FindLaw's collection of Employment Laws articles, part of the Human Resources section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.
Human Resources
Employment Laws Articles
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Fourth Circuit allows FMLA claim to proceed despite fact that the plaintiff signed a release at the termination of her employment where she waived her right to sue under Title VII, ADA, ADEA and "any other federal, state or local laws." -
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), the federal administrative agency that oversees the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), has once again reversed its position on a critical bargaining issue. Several years ago, the Board held that staffing agency employees who shared essential working conditions with the client-employer's regular employees could be included in the same bargaining unit, without either the client-employer's or staffing agency's consent. -
Recently, the United States Supreme Court, in Jones v. R.R. Donelly & Sons Co., addressed the applicable time period employees could sue employers for claims brought under a federal civil rights statute that prohibits intentional racial discrimination. See 42 U.S.C. Section 1981. Most employee discrimination statutes, such as Title VII or the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, specify the time period within which a charge and/or lawsuit must be filed. Unlike those laws, however, Section 1981 (which has no relation to the year in which it was passed and does not sound as catchy as Title VII) has no administrative prerequisites, nor any caps on compensatory or punitive damages. -
In Urban v. Dolgencorp of Texas, Inc., the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck a blow for employers attempting to manage employees' purported FMLA-protected leaves of absence, holding Dolgencorp was within its rights to terminate Urban when Urban failed to submit a medical certification supporting her request for FMLA leave. -
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") has filed suit in the Northern District of Illinois against one of the country's biggest and most well-known law firms, Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood ("Sidley Austin"). The EEOC alleges that the law firm, which maintains an age-based retirement policy, discriminated against its own partners by engaging in a campaign of illegal age discrimination. The lawsuit seeks reinstatement of the partners, injunctive relief, and monetary damages that could exceed over $30 million. -
In a watershed decision on March 30, 2005, the United States Supreme Court held an employer may be held liable for age discrimination based on a facially neutral employment policy that has a disproportionate effect, or "disparate impact," on older workers. In Smith v. City of Jackson, Mississippi, the Supreme Court resolved an issue of longstanding uncertainty among the lower courts, finding that disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Age Discrimination In Employment Act ("ADEA"). -
Recently, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued an opinion letter clarifying confusion about timekeeping and exempt employees. The opinion is supported by the preamble to the new DOL regulations 29, C.F.R. 541. -
In June, an Illinois federal court of appeals issued a decision that may have a drastic impact on the use of "personality tests" in the employment setting. -
The EEOC has, as part of its on-line Question and Answer Series, recently issued guidance regarding whether cancer is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). The ADA is a federal law that prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against individuals with actual or perceived disabilities. -
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") has, recently, revised its Compliance Manual--the agency's internal investigation manual--to reflect current law regarding charge-filing time limitations.