The Majority Opinion: Legal Blog

I came across a lot of great articles this week, especially in regard to minimum wage issues.  Given that Halloween is tomorrow, I thought this would be a good time to highlight some articles on the topic.  It really is a 'trick or treat':  a trick for a lot of employers are terrified of impending minimum wage increases, but a treat for employees who have been fighting (and continue to fight) for an increase in their hourly pay. As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Where Do Republican Presidential Candidates Stand on Federal Minimum Wage Rate of $7.25/hour? Katie Little over at MSNBC has a good overview of where each of the Republican Presidential candidates stand on the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25/hour.  Unsurprisingly, the majority of candidates either do not support raising the federal minimum wage rate or only doing so if the wage rate increase is "reasonable".  Still worth a quick read through to get a feel for where

As always, there are some recent EEOC cases that jump out at me when I review recent developments on that front.  Below are a couple EEOC cases and settlements that stand out: EEOC Sues Coca-Cola of Mobile for Sex Discrimination Recently, the EEOC brought suit against Coca-Cola of Mobile on the grounds that it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against a job applicant on the basis of sex.  In June 2010, Martina Owes applied for two vacant warehouse positions but was not selected.  In her August 2010 EEOC charge, she complained the company hired less qualified male applicants instead.  During its investigation, the EEOC requested Coca-Cola provide the employment applications for potential and actual hires dating back to February 2010.  However, Coca-Cola of Mobile allegedly could not produce these applications and thus was in violation of the federal recordkeeping requirements.   In essence, federal law requires covered employers

Recently, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 1506 which provides California employers with a bit of leeway to fix any wage statement violations before a suit can be brought under California's Private Attorneys General Pact ("PAGA").  Under California law, specific information must be included on an employee's pay stub, such as the name and address of the employer, inclusive dates of the pay period, etc.  If an employer violates this part of the Labor Code in regard to the wage statement, an employee can bring suit under the PAGA.   Under this new law, an employer is now given a limited right to cure certain wage statement violations.  Note, this right to cure is limited to alleged violations of Labor Code section 226(a)(6) and (8).  The law now gives employers 33 days from the postmark date of the notice of a violation to issue a fully compliant pay stub to all aggrieved employees for each pay period for the 3 year period preceding the postmark

Given the article I posted on the Milwaukee Bucks cheerleader's wage and hour suit ( From Pom Poms to the Courtroom: Milwaukee Bucks Edition ), I thought this would be a good time to highlight some articles on the N.F.L. cheerleaders who have brought suit and requested they be classified as employees and paid minimum wage.   As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Cheerleader Lawsuits: Are They Having an Impact? The New York Times has an interesting look at the wage and hour claims brought by a host of N.F.L. cheerleaders over the past year or so.  As the article notes, California has passed a bill that designates cheerleaders as employees rather than independent contractors, with legislators in New York considering similar legislation.  From what it appears, these wage and hour suits are starting to have an impact.  Very interesting to see how things have progressed. Lawmakers Attempt to Push N.F.L. to Act on Minimum Wage Issue I

Doak v. Johnson - District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals Facts :  Edna Doak ("Doak") worked as an analyst in the Office of Acquisition Resources Management at the United States Coast Guard.  Doak suffered from several debilitating conditions that caused her to miss a significant amount of work, with little to no predictable pattern.  After she exhausted her FMLA leave, Doak requested various accommodations including a late start time of 11 AM (everyone else started between 6 AM and 8 AM) and telecommuting.  Doak's late start time and telecommuting requests were denied on the grounds that Doak's position required her to interact frequently with various co-workers.  The requested accommodations were found to not allow her to perform those job functions. Doak was subsequently terminated from her position due to her ongoing inability to work a regular schedule Doak brought suit against the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Gu

In the past month, there have been several developments in regard to the wage and hour claims brought by N.F.L. cheerleaders against the league and the teams they cheer for.   On September 9, approximately 19 Congressmen from around the country sent a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell and advocated for minimum wage for these cheerleaders and to designate them as employees.  As the letter pointed out, the FLSA affords these cheerleaders protections from wage theft which they allege is occurring throughout the league.   In a subtle jab to the lack of action by the N.F.L., the letter notes that California passed a bill to address the wage theft in regard to these cheerleaders.  As well, the letter drew attention to a similar bill that is pending in New York. The letter closed with a request that the N.F.L. do something about this issue, given that females make up approximately 45% of the fan base.  In addition, the Congressmen implored the N.F.L. to take the opportunity

Recently, LinkedIn announced it will adopt a new vacation policy that includes no minimum or maximum vacation days.  With this new policy going into effect, LinkedIn is going from 15 days of accrued vacation and 13 paid holidays to "discretionary time off" and 17 paid holidays.  For those of you looking to jump on board LinkedIn, given this new policy, note that it takes effect on November 1 of this year. Readers might remember another tech company, Netflix, announcing unlimited parental leave back in August.  ( Netflix Announces Unlimited Parental Leave ).  Or perhaps other companies such as Nestle, Virgin, or Toms who enacted similar leave policies.  ( Increasing Number of Companies Are Expanding Their Leave Policies ). While LinkedIn's new policy is not so much geared towards parental leave matters, it still provides its employees an opportunity "act like an owner" of his or her vacation needs (or at least that is how LinkedIn's HR executive, Pat W

This was a great week where I found some time to read through several great articles, many on labor law related topics.  Given the increase of NLRB and labor law related issues in the news over the past few weeks, this is a good time to highlight those matters with a "Labor Law Edition" post. As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. NLRB "Ambush" Election Rule Appears To Be Just That, An Ambush George Miller has a good follow up on the impact of the NLRB "Ambush" Election Rule that recently went into effect earlier this year.  ( NLRB "Ambush" Election Becomes a Reality ).  As this article notes, the new rule has indeed shortened the time between the date of the filing of an election petition and the date of the actual election.  It goes without saying that this development has given the business community further evidence that this new rule has had an unwanted positive impact on union votes...and an incentive t

***Edited to add:   Note, as I was finishing this post up late yesterday, an update broke.  On the afternoon of October 12, 2015, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden released the following statement: "After careful consideration of what is in the best interest of the university and our student-athletes, I have made the decision to terminate Steve Sarkisian, effective immediately." It looks like USC felt they had done the necessary investigation of the matter and decided that a termination was the proper response.  Given the continued line of stories that had continued to leak out about Coach Sarkisian and his apparent battle with alcohol while on the job, I cannot say I am surprised that USC went this route. With that being said, I am still posting the below in its original form. This past Sunday, University of Southern California coach Steve Sarkisian allegedly showed up to team facilities and appeared to be intoxicated.  Coach Sarkisian then apparently di

Lenart v. Coach, Inc. - United States District Court, Southern District of New York Facts :  Todd Lenart ("Lenart") was hired by Coach in February 2012, by the Tax Department's Vice President Thomas Shortway.  In his position, Lenart served as Divisional Vice President of International Tax.  During his time at Coach, Lenart claimed that he experienced a hostile work environment and was discriminated against based upon his sex and gender by two female supervisors.  Lenart believed that men were subjected to a more rigorous hiring process than women and thought that Coach favored hiring women over men.  Even once an employee started at Coach, Lenart believed that women were given preferential treatment over men.  At one point, a male colleague of Lenart's said that a senior Vice President (who was female) said she wanted to have a staff of all women. After working at Coach for about a year, Lenart was fired on the grounds of a reorganization of the tax functi

Had a tough time narrowing down the articles I wanted to post this week.  One of my favorites dealt with how employers can avoid retaliation claims.  Some of the suggestions are common sense but often times those are the ones that employers do not even consider or simply forget about. As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Urban Outfitters Looking for Volunteer Workers This note from The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting note on Urban Outfitters' request for weekend volunteers to staff one of its fulfillment centers in Pennsylvania.  As Urban Outfitters clarified in its press release (after the employee-only e-mail got leaked), the company was only allowing salaried employees to volunteer.  Apparently, no hourly employees would be allowed to volunteer "in order to ensure full compliance with all applicable labor laws and regulations."  Smart call.  And what do these salaried workers receive for volunteering?  Lunch and transpor

Recently, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 358, which bars California employers from paying women less than men when they both do "substantially similar work."  As the language of the new law reads, this Fair Pay Act is one of the tougher equal pay measures to go into effect anywhere in the country.   Under the new law, employers are prohibited from preventing workers from discussing their own wages or the wages of co-workers if the purpose is to determine pay fairness.  In addition, the Act prevents employers from retaliating or discriminating against employees who seek out pay disparity information.  In essence, California employees are now free to talk amongst themselves and do their own research to determine whether they are receiving fair pay...without the threat of the employer taking action against them. Interesting to note, the bill received the unanimous support of the Senate in California and only had two dissenting votes in the Assembly

Yesterday, I posted an article about the Summit on Worker Voice, hosted by the White House.  ( White House to Host "Voice on Worker Summit" ).  This event, scheduled for Wednesday, is an opportunity to "bring together workers, labor leaders, advocates, forward-leaning employers, members of Congress, state and local officials and others to highlight the relationship between worker voice and a thriving middle class." Now, the Heritage Foundation has scheduled a "Summit on Workers' Empowerment" for today, October 6th, to "draw attention to excessive government regulations that hold workers back and the issues Big Labor and the enabling administration are causing to the American workforce."  Translation:  We were not invited to the White House event so we are going to stage a pro-employer/anti-union meeting of our own.   It is not surprising that this pro-employer meeting is to occur, especially given that it takes place a day before th

Recently, the White House announced plans to hold a "Summit on Worker Voice" this week, on October 7.  This event has been dubbed by the White House as an opportunity to "bring together workers, labor leaders, advocates, forward-leaning employers, Members of Congress, state and local officials and others to highlight the relationship between worker voice and a thriving middle class."  The official announcement from the White House describes this event as aimed at bringing together a wide range of individuals to discuss workplace issues, provide feedback to employers about what matters to employees, and provide an open dialogue for employees to share what works best in the workplace, among other objectives. Given the continued string of pro-employee and pro-Union measures from the White House (& President Obama), this event is unsurprising, if nothing short of expected.  As others have noted, this event could be further evidence that the White House is

Pretty busy week so far, but I was able to find some downtime to read through a couple good articles.  The note from Eric Meyer on a potential nationwide "ban the box" was very interesting and worth a read.  In fact, the article on Ohio's possible right to work legislation is also a good note on some potentially big legislation.  While both of these are in the early stages and still a ways away from becoming law, they are certainly ones to watch. As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Right to Work States: Next Up, Ohio? The Columbus Dispatch has an update on plans for a Cincinnati area lawmaker to introduce a right to work bill in Ohio this month that would impact private sector unions.  The article points out that any right to work bill will likely have trouble passing as a prior bill in 2011 that would have included right to work language for public sector unions was overturned by voters.  Given that Ohio's Governor, John Kas