The Majority Opinion: Legal Blog

It has been a busy couple of weeks traveling for work.  In fact as I type this, I am about ready to land in Miami.  However, while I have a few spare minutes, I want to post a What I've Been Reading This Week so that readers can take a look at some of the well written notes I came across.  As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Employers: A Few Tips On Dealing With the Termination of High Profile Employees This is a great article from the Delaware Employment Law blog on a recent issue that arose when Reddit terminated a high profile employee, Victoria Taylor, who had been responsible for organizing and facilitating AMAs for the company (AMAs a/k/a "Ask Me Anything"...a sort of question and answer session on Reddit where Reddit users can pose questions to well known people and get responses to a range of questions).  However, after Taylor's termination, Reddit made some missteps, which as this article points out, employers can us...

Readers might remember a recent United States Supreme Court decision from June in which the Court considered an issue over whether an Abercrombie & Fitch store discriminated against an applicant because she wore a head scarf to her interview (which did not conform with Abercrombie's "Look Policy".  ( United States Supreme Court Issues Opinion in Abercrombie & Fitch Case ).   Recently, a federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit for approximately 62,000 Abercrombie employees.  The employees allege that Abercrombie forces its workers to wear its clothing (which requires employees to buy new clothing every time Abercrombie issues a new sales guide) but will not reimburse them for the purchases.  These alleged acts are in violation of California's labor codes.   As well, Abercrombie allegedly sent employees home or reduced their shifts if they showed up to work and did not meet the company's strict appearance requirements....

Back in February, I had posted an update on the NLRB Ambush Election rules (aka "quickie election" rules).  ( A Look at the NLRB's New Ambush Election Rules ).  Unsurprisingly, two lawsuits were filed to challenge the new election rules.  One suit was filed in D.C. and the other in Texas.   Recently, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a whopping 72 page opinion that rejected each of the arguments raised by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and other groups that the ambush election rules were unconstitutional.  Note, this opinion follows an April ruling from the Texas court which also rejected a challenge to the ambush election rules. While this opinion takes some wind out of the sales of some of these opposition groups, this probably is not the last challenge we have heard.  For now, I would expect there to be additional appeals and at some point, possibly some sort of Congressional action.  W...

Given all the attention to Netflix's parental leave policy announced recently, I thought it was appropriate to point readers towards some additional articles on the topic.  Unsurprisingly, there are supporters and critics of the new policy.  I think it is worth a look at both sides of the argument, in order to get a better understanding of how this policy will impact workers going forward. As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. The Challenge Facing Netflix's Parental Leave Policy...& a Possible Solution? Business Insider has a well thought out look at one of the main challenges facing Netflix's parental leave policy:  The uneasiness/unwillingness of workers to actually use the leave provided by the new policy out of fear that they will become expendable, not be able to catchup on the work they miss, burden their coworkers, etc.  The same line of reasoning often applies to why workers do not use all of their vacation time....

Raiford v. Maryland Dept. of Juvenile Services - United States District Court for the District of Maryland Facts :  Gregory Raiford ("Raiford") was a Resident Advisor ("RA") with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services ("DJS") at a youth detention facility.  In his position as an RA, Raiford was in charge of providing care and supervision to youth offenders.  In June 2010, Raiford was injured while separating juveniles who were in a fight.   After he initially returned to light duty work at the gatehouse, which did not involve contact with the juveniles, he underwent surgery on his knee and took about three months to recover.  In April 2011, Raiford's doctor recommended that he return to the gatehouse for his light duty work.  However, DJS could not accommodate this request and gave Raiford another month of leave.  During that time off, DJS required Raiford to undergo a workability evaluation to determine if he could perform the es...

Early last year, I posted an article about several Northwestern University football players argued they were "employees" and sought to unionize.  ( College Football Players: Student Athletes & Now Union Members? ).  As things developed, the Chicago district of the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") ruled in March of 2014 that the student athletes qualified as "employees" and therefore were allowed to unionize.  ( College Football Players Given Green Light to Unionize ).  Unsurprisingly, Northwestern University filed a brief with the National Labor Relations Board in D.C. and asked the Board to overturn the decision from the NLRB's Chicago Regional Director.  ( Northwestern University Files Its Brief to Contest Initial NLRB Decision ).  However, the Northwestern football team conducted a vote in April of 2014 on whether to unionize.  The results of that vote were sealed until the outcome of the NLRB matter was resolved. And now, many, man...

Without a doubt, one of the more talked about topics that I came across this week dealt with potential changes to overtime exemptions under the FLSA.  It is still early and these changes might never actually occur.  However, if they do, there will be many, many employers and employees alike who will be impacted. As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Is FMLA Leave Allowed So An Employee Can Attend to An Autistic Child? This was one of the more interesting FMLA related articles I came across recently.  I wanted to draw readers' attention to this one as Jeff Nowak does a great job walking through the issue of whether FMLA leave is allowed for employees to care for autistic children.  While there might not be a clear cut answer on this matter, Jeff provides the reader with the foundation to better understand the issue and and comprehend some of the finer points of the FMLA. Changes Could Be Coming for Overtime Exemptions Under...