The Majority Opinion: Legal Blog

As with many employment and labor law related cases that are being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.  This is one to keep an eye on. Facts :  Barbara Burrows ("Burrows") was a lesbian college professor and administrator at College of Central Florida ("CCF").  When CCF President Charles Dassance ("Dassance") hired Burrows, he knew she was a lesbian and had a partner.  Burrows initially received acceptable annual evaluations her first two years in the position and CCF renewed her contract each year.  However, Dassance began to receive complaints from faculty and staff about Burrows and her job performance.  Dassance was subsequently informed CCF would not renew her contract for another year.   CCF allowed Burrows to transfer to a teaching position in the math department, but she received about $40,000.00 less in salary in her new position.  Burrows subsequently filed grievances that she was entitled...

I came across a lot of great articles this week which made it tougher to narrow down.  With the recent announcement out of West Virginia in regard to its right to work legislation becoming effective on July 1, 2016, I thought leading this post off with a right to work article was appropriate.  It will be interesting to see who the 27th state will be that is able to pass right to work legislation.   As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week. Colorado Takes Steps Toward Becoming a Right to Work State The Denver Business Journal has a note on a recent vote by Republicans in the Colorado Senate to pass a bill that would make Colorado the 27th right to work state.  While Republicans in the Senate were able to approve the bill, the fact that the House is controlled by Democrats with a 34 - 31 majority means this legislation is likely going nowhere.  Short of a few Democrats switching sides and approving the right to work legis...

Earlier this month, West Virginia became the 26th right to work state after the Republican controlled legislature overrode Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomlin's veto of the legislation.  The "Workplace Freedom Act" is set to become effective on July 1, 2016. Readers might remember my post earlier this month on the topic, in which I noted it was only a matter of time before right to work laws became effective in West Virginia ( West Virginia on Verge of Becoming the Next Right to Work State ).  I would not call this development much of a surprise, considering the Republican controlled legislature had the necessary votes to overcome the Governor's veto (all that was needed to overcome the veto was a simple majority...and Republicans in West Virginia had numbers on their side).  What is perhaps most interesting is how fast Republicans were able to move this legislation through the House and Senate.  Remember, this was the first bill introduced in the 60 day legis...

Never let it be said that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken a laid back approach to pushing a $15/hour minimum wage in the state.  Earlier this week, it was announced that he would start a bus tour across the state and hold rallies in support of a minimum wage increase.  In fact, yesterday, his $15/hour minimum wage bus tour was set to make stops in Manhattan, the Bronx and Long Island to hold rallies in support of higher hourly wages.  In the coming weeks, the Governor is set to make appearances in upstate New York as well. Readers might remember that the Governor has taken the lead on $15/hour minimum wage fights across the state recently:  SUNY Workers to Receive $15/Hour Minimum Wage ; New York City Fast Food Workers to See $15/Hour Minimum Wage .   Whether touring the state in an RV to create buzz for a statewide $15/hour minimum wage rate yields any results is unclear.  But given how aggressive the Governor has been on the issue...

Petrovic v. The Department of Employment Security - Supreme Court of Illinois Facts :  Zlata Petrovic ("Petrovic") worked for American Airlines ("American") from 1988 to 2012.  In early 2012, while working at O'Hare, Petrovic got a call from a friend at another airline.  The friend asked whether Petrovic could do something for a passenger scheduled to fly on American.  Petrovic requested a bottle of champagne be delivered to the passenger and got a flight attendant to upgrade the passenger from business class to first class.  A few weeks later, Petrovic was notified that he was terminated because she upgraded the passenger and requested the champagne without proper authorization. Petrovic applied for unemployment benefits, but American filed a protest.  A claims adjuster denied benefits to Petrovic on the grounds that she was discharged for misconduct connected to her work.  After Petrovic appealed an in investigation was done, benefits wer...

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 incr...

Back in August, I highlighted a case for readers to keep an eye on, Frlekin v. Apple.  ( One to Keep An Eye On: Frlekin v. Apple ).  The case, pending before the United States District Court for Northern District of California dealt with whether employees could be compensated for time spent in security screening lines after leaving work for the day and after having already clocked out. Background :  In this case, a wage and hour class action was filed on the grounds that Apple employees were entitled to compensation for time spent undergoing mandatory security screenings pursuant to Apple's bag-search and technology-card search policies and for time spent waiting for the searches to occur.  According to Apple, these searches were conducted to see if Apple products were being pilfered by employees.   At issue was the fact that the employees had to clock out prior to undergoing the search and their recorded hours work did not account for the time...