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Hooters Rails Against Award in Arbitration It Required

Kollman & Saucier
04/04/2015
Arbitration, Employment Discrimination
Employers without a union sometimes think it’s a good idea to consider implementing a policy that requires employees to arbitrate workplace claims rather than permit them to pursue remedies in court. The selling point, the story goes, is that it’s cheaper, faster and you don’t have to worry about a jury deciding the fate of the parties. Anyone who has gone through the arbitration process knows that along with the positives of arbitration –...
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Supreme Court Clarifies Pregnancy Discrimination Act Claims in Young v. UPS

Kollman & Saucier
03/26/2015
Employment Discrimination, Pregnancy Discrimination
On March 26, 2015,  the Supreme Court announced its decision in Young v. UPS, setting forth a new standard for how employees may prove a claim of pregnancy discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 575 U.S. ____ (2015).  In Young,  the Court faced the issue of how to interpret the second clause of the PDA, which states: women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions...
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Court Holds Employer Who Fired Employee For Making Death Threats May Have Violated ADA

Kollman & Saucier
01/23/2015
Disability & Leave
Does an employer violate the ADA by firing an employee three weeks after the employee informs security that he is “unstable” and having homicidal thoughts? However unlikely a “yes” answer to that question may seem, a judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania concluded that it was possible in Walton v. Spherion Staffing LLC, No. 13-6896 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 13, 2015). Both the ADA and state disability discrimination laws permit employers to...
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Supreme Court to Determine Scope of Judicial Review on EEOC Conciliation Process

Kollman & Saucier
01/21/2015
Agency Activity, Employment Discrimination
Under what circumstances may a court scrutinize the EEOC’s claim that conciliation has failed? The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Mach Mining v. EEOC to address this precise issue. No. 13-1019 (Jan. 13, 2015). Although the vast majority of employment discrimination claims each year are brought by private parties, the EEOC possesses authority under Title VII to sue employers on behalf of an aggrieved employee(s), but only after...
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Applicant with DACA Status States Section 1981 Claim

Kollman & Saucier
11/25/2014
Employment Discrimination
In what appears to be the first case of its kind, a judge in New York has let a class alienage discrimination claim proceed against Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. The lawsuit challenges Northwestern Mutual’s alleged policy of hiring only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs). Juarez v. Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160726 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 14, 2014). According to the complaint, Ruben Juarez is a...
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Supreme Court Set to Clarify Issues Surrounding Vesting of Retiree Health Benefits

Kollman & Saucier
11/14/2014
Employee Benefits, Supreme Court Decisions
On November 10, 2014, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in M & G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, a case that has the potential to reshape significantly the legal landscape of retiree health benefit provisions in collective bargaining agreements (CBA). At issue is the legal framework courts should apply when faced with CBA retiree health benefit cases. There is currently a wide split among several federal circuits on the issue. On the...
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Math Teacher’s Accent-Based Claims of National Origin Discrimination Don’t Add Up

Kollman & Saucier
11/11/2014
Employment Discrimination
There is no substitute for effective communication. In Fong v. School Board of Palm Beach County, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit again proved this lesson by upholding a school board’s decision to terminate one of its teachers in part because of her thick accent when speaking English. Ms. Jianxin Fong worked as a math teacher at Boynton Beach High School. Two years after her hiring, in 2008-09, the Palm Beach County School Board...
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Employment Cases on the Supreme Court’s 2014-15 Docket

Kollman & Saucier
10/06/2014
Supreme Court Decisions
It’s the first Monday in October and, apart from the most important thing happening this week – the Baltimore Orioles are going to the ALCS – the Supreme Court starts its 2014-15 term. There are, for now, eight labor and employment law cases on the docket. Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk (No. 13-433): In the first case of the term to be argued, the Court will decide whether the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) may require employers...
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College Employee’s ADA and Retaliation Claims Get Past Summary Judgment

Kollman & Saucier
09/29/2014
Disability & Leave, FMLA, Retaliation
Lest any employer need reminding that workplace disability issues (and the ADA/FMLA interplay) are nearly always tricky, a recent decision by Judge Russell proves the point well. In Williams v. Balt. City Cmty. College, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133144 (D. Md. Sept. 23, 2014), the court denied the College’s motion for summary judgment on the plaintiff’s “regarded as” disabled and retaliation claims, while granting the motion on plaintiff’s...
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Regional Air Carriers are “Joint Employers” Under FMLA

Kollman & Saucier
09/25/2014
Disability & Leave, FMLA
The Seventh Circuit has held that two air carriers that supplied regional air service for United Airlines are joint employers for purposes of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Cuff v. Trans States Holdings, Inc., 2014 U.S.App. LEXIS 18901 (7th Cir. September 19, 2014). In so doing, the court held that an employee who was on the Trans States payroll was covered by the FMLA. United contracts with firms for regional air service as “United...
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