As the economy continues to slump the unemployment rate is staying high, but it seems that employers may be partly to blame. The Washington DC Employment Law Update reported in February that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public hearing “to address the alleged ‘emerging practice’ of excluding currently unemployed job-seekers from applicant pools” after […]
Federal Lawsuit Brought Against Hotel For Firing Non-Hispanic Employees
A federal lawsuit is being brought against a Hampton Inn franchise in Craig, Colorado, alleging that the hotel fired non-Hispanic employees in favor of Latino’s. The lawsuit claims that the GM of the Colorado hotel was told by the owners “to hire more qualified maids, and that they preferred maids to be Hispanic because in […]
Amazon Employees Report Brutal Working Conditions
The Huffington Post has reported that the workers for Amazon.com’s Allentown, Pennsylvania warehouse “are willing contend with working at a brutal pace in dizzying heat so long as it means having a job.” The Morning Call interviewed 20 former and current employees of the warehouse, and of those spoken with, only one said it was a good […]
Union Pacific Fined For Retaliating Against Workers
Business Week reports that “federal officials say Union Pacific Corp. should pay $612,215 for retaliating against three employees.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said that UP violated the rights of two conductors and an engineer for reporting workplace safety concerns and a work-related injury. OSHA also says that these violations “seem to be a part […]
Federal Judge Gives Women Until Oct 28 To Sue Wal-Mart In Gender Bias Case
In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a class-action suit brought against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. by 1.5 million current and former female employees of the retail giant in June of this year. But U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California said in a ruling on August 19th that the women […]
Court OK’s Class Action Against AT&T
The Birmingham Business Journal reported that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted class action status to a lawsuit filed by workers of Bellsouth Telecommunications against AT&T Inc. The workers are claiming that they are owed $1billion in overtime pay. This ruling is the third approved overtime class-action that alleges that AT&T and […]
Court OK’s Class Action Against AT&T
The Birmingham Business Journal reported that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted class action status to a lawsuit filed by workers of Bellsouth Telecommunications against AT&T Inc. The workers are claiming that they are owed $1billion in overtime pay. This ruling is the third approved overtime class-action that alleges that AT&T and […]
Apology Statutes Could Reduce Litigation and Preserve Relationships
Brad Reid, of Lipscomb University’s Dean Institute For Corporate Governance and Integrity, presented an argument in The Huffington Post favoring the development of “an apology statute that encourages statements of concern and at the same time allows a jury to determine the facts of a particular incident.” “The traditional legal risk of an apology,” he says, “has […]
Columnist Says Tort Reform Is Skewed Toward Corporations
Columnist Margaret Carlson writes a scathing review of tort reform in Bloomberg News, saying that, “in practice, tort reform has proved to be just another corporate protection racket.” She sites Texas’ capping wrongful death damages at $500,000 and non-economic damages at $250,000, and points to cases such as a Nebraska family that was awarded $1.25 million […]
Wage Lawsuits On the Rise
While layoffs are hard on employees and their families, they are also hard on employers, as lawsuits that are brought by former employees rise. A weekly industry publication, Business Insurance, reports that, “The Department of Labor said there were 40,000 wage-and-hour complaints during fiscal 2010, up about 15% from roughly 35,000 complaints in fiscal 2009.” The […]
