The Employment Brief | Employment Law | Kollman & Saucier, P.A.

Don’t Make Employment Decisions Because An Employee Took Maternity Leave

Kollman & Saucier

09/07/2016

A recent decision out of a Maryland federal court offers a simple, yet important, reminder for employers: do not make employment decisions because an employee has taken, is on, or might take maternity leave. EEOC v. Dimensions Healthcare Sys., No. 15-2342 (D. Md. Sept. 2, 2016). Cassandra Crawford worked for Dimensions Healthcare System (DHS) from May 2007 until 2014. She started as an appeals coordinator in DHS’s Patient Financial Services...

Kollman & Saucier

09/05/2016

Labor Law

Twenty-nine years ago this week, on September 8, 1987, I began my legal career at the law firm then known as Venable, Baetjer & Howard. The late Sam Cook, Chairman of the firm's Labor & Employment Department asked me if I had enjoyed my "Management Day" holiday the preceding day. Even since, I've had a special affinity for the first Monday in September, and today I offer some thoughts on a couple of trending topics in the world of labor...

Kollman & Saucier

09/01/2016

Labor Law

Less than a week after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that teaching assistants at private universities are employees under the National Labor Relations Act, graduate assistants in 10 Yale academic departments filed separate petitions for union elections with the Board. The union seeking to represent the graduate assistants, UNITE HERE Local 33, is asking for separate elections under the NLRB's 2011 Specialty Healthcare decision, which...

Darrell VanDeusen

08/25/2016

Labor Law

School is nearly back in session. But rather than be satisfied with some new pens and notebooks, the NLRB’s “back to school list” is huge. First, there was announcement of the Board’s decision in Columbia University, 364 NLRB No. 90 (Aug. 23, 2016) that graduate students are employees and can form unions. The Board’s 3-1 decision reversed a 2004 decision that held just the opposite. Second, the Board released decisions in Seattle...

Darrell VanDeusen

08/24/2016

Direct Evidence, Employment Discrimination

In an effort to clarify the way discrimination claims are evaluated by judges in the Circuit, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has overruled Circuit precedent requiring employees to prove allegations through either a “direct” or an “indirect” method that showed a “convincing mosaic” of discrimination. Ortiz v. Werner Enters., Inc., 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15284 (7th Cir. Aug. 19, 2016). The underlying facts of the case are...

Clifford Geiger

08/22/2016

Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Orientation

On August 18, 2016, a federal district court ruled that a Michigan funeral home did not violate Title VII by firing a transgender employee, who was transitioning from male to female, because the employee intended to “dress as a woman” at work. EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Funeral Homes, Inc., E.D. Mich., No. 14-13710, 8/18/16 The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled the funeral home was entitled to a religious exemption...

Clifford Geiger

08/17/2016

Religious Discrimination

Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for religious beliefs and practices. Protection covers not only religious beliefs that are traditionally associated with some organized religion, but beliefs that may be new, uncommon, or not even part of an organized church or sect. Courts sometimes are required to sort out whether a particular belief is “religious.” For...

Kollman & Saucier

08/12/2016

Wrongful Discharge

The public debate about the breadth of the Second Amendment remains ongoing and a subject that provokes deeply held passions and beliefs on both sides -- including recent comments on the topic by a certain presidential candidate. Amidst this debate, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held this week that an employee who was terminated for bringing a gun to work may bring a lawsuit for wrongful discharge under Mississippi law. Swindol v. Aurora...

Kollman & Saucier

08/10/2016

Employment Discrimination

One of the bedrock principles of employment law is that discrimination based on protected status (race, national origin, sex, etc.) is illegal under Title VII only if it affects an individual’s “compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment[.]” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). This is often referred to as the adverse action requirement. The adverse action requirement is usually met without difficulty – for example, where an...

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Email Updates

Don’t Make Employment Decisions Because An Employee Took Maternity Leave

Labor Day Musings

Yale Graduate Assistants Seek Union Elections in Ten Departments

Colleges and Universities on Labor Board’s Hit Parade This Week

“Direct” v. “Indirect” Discrimination Tests: Seventh Circuit Says There’s No Difference

Court Rules Against EEOC On Transgender Discrimination Claim

Moral and Ethical Opposition to Flu Vaccine Not a Religious Belief

Fifth Circuit Holds That Firing For Having Gun at Work May Be Wrongful Discharge

Denial of Lateral Transfers Not “Adverse Action” Under Title VII

Email Updates