The Majority Opinion: Legal Blog

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, fede...

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 th...

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 Mi...

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 Co...

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 t...

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...