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What I've Been Reading This Week


This turned into my first full week back in the office in the past several weeks.  With that being said, in between playing catch up and prepping cases for upcoming hearings over the next few weeks, I came across some good articles.  Perhaps most interesting was the article on attempts by Republicans in the Alabama House of Representatives to block minimum wage increases.  This bill still has to pass the Senate...but it is interesting to watch develop.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


Alabama Takes Steps to Block Minimum Wage Hikes

It is not every day that I see states (or cities for that matter), take proactive steps to block minimum wage hikes.  With that being said, here comes Alabama, whose House of Representatives passed a bill 71 - 31 on Tuesday which would block cities from imposing minimum wage hikes.  As Cliff Sims writes, this legislation follows on the heels of a vote by the Birmingham City Council to increase minimum wage rates to $8.50 this year and $10.10 by July of 2017.  It will be interesting to see how this one plays out in the Alabama Senate...but for the time being, opponents of minimum wage increases have something to cheer about.



For those looking for a little light reading (all 290 pages of the manual, that is), OSHA recently published its Whistleblower Investigations Manual which outlines procedures and other information as it relates to the handling of retaliation complaints under various whistleblower statutes.  Well worth a read (or review for the more casual observer) for those who deal with OSHA and related whistleblower issues.  



Pavithra Mohan over at Fast Company has a well written note on the potential wave of class action suits that Uber could be facing.  O'Connor v. Uber has so far been the big class action suit against the company that is pending in California.  In O'Connor, the court granted class certification in regard to the Uber drivers' employee v. independent contractor dispute with the company.  As Mohan writes, there are thirteen proposed cases spread out around the country that are seeking to follow O'Connor's lead.  This is a very interesting issue to watch develop!

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