In June of last year, we pondered whether obesity is a mere physical characteristic or a disability protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as now amended by the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act...more
The use of non-competition agreements to protect a company’s relationships and sensitive information is a relatively common practice. What can be less common, however, is careful use of non-competition agreements, with the...more
Separation or severance agreements —which typically provide a terminating employee with some kind of cash payment, temporary salary continuation, or other gratuitous benefit in exchange for a release of claims — have their...more
Last week – July 26, 2015, to be precise – marked the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The anniversary kicked off celebrations of, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the...more
Employee classification issues have been a recurrent topic of ours, and with all the class action litigation arising from independent contractor and other classifications, we have had no shortage of opportunities to remind...more
We noted several weeks ago that the Ellen Pao case reminds us that sometimes settlement is better than the airing of sensitive allegations, and sometimes outrageous settlement demands require an aggressive defense, media...more
Well, phew. We like when legal developments we believe raise troubling questions with problematic implications later develop into something seemingly more rational based on the intersection of law and logic. One such pleasant...more
The National Labor Relations Board certainly did not wait long to take the next step in changing the landscape of union organizing to promote the success of labor interests in representation campaigns. Only one day after its...more
Well we pretty much knew this day was coming. Your email system has just become a union’s most effective tool to organize your employees.
In May of this year, we predicted the National Labor Relations Board would...more
We noted in October that the U.S. Supreme Court recently held oral argument in a case considering whether time spent by employees passing through security screening lines on their way out of the employer’s facility...more
Signaling its intent to pursue its viewpoint that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (including transgender identity), the Equal Employment Opportunity...more
We noted last year that 20 years after the original passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), the Department of Labor issued a survey report lauding the effectiveness of the law and the positive impact it has had...more
A big part of what makes the franchise model of business attractive to small business owners is the opportunity to own and operate their own business, but with their entrepreneurial risk backstopped by a known regional or...more
8/12/2014
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Fast-Food Industry ,
Franchises ,
Franchisors ,
Joint Employers ,
McDonalds ,
NLRB ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Small Business ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
Several weeks ago, in both a tongue-in-cheek and concerned fashioned, we wrote about a federal court decision that concluded an employer had to tolerate an employee’s admitted theft as a reasonable accommodation for her...more
Late last month, the Illinois Supreme Court essentially gutted the state’s long-standing eavesdropping law, placing the state into an unprecedented “no-mans-land” for the recording of private conversations. In two separate...more
The success or failure of an employer’s defenses in employment litigation often turns on what motivated a termination decision. My consistently subpar performance or my complaint about harassment? My taking of leave or...more
As the next step in a series of moves that will likely confer substantial advantages to unions in organizing campaigns, the National Labor Relations Board has resurrected proposed changes to its election rules. While the...more
On Tuesday, July 30, 2013, the Senate voted to confirm all five of President Obama’s nominees to the NLRB to avoid a major showdown over Senate procedural rules regarding approval of executive appointments....more
For many years, the traditional practice has been that settlements of claims brought, and waivers of claims arising, under the FLSA required approval either from the Department of Labor (DOL) or a court. This rationale has...more
This week, the Department of Labor (DOL) marked the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by issuing a final rule (Rule) creating two expanded protections under the FMLA....more